Bespoke EDA Differentiates Silicon Chips

Coming full or almost full circle to a by-gone era of specialized CAD flows

By Michiel Ligthart, Verific Design Automation
EETimes (July 7, 2023)

For so long, designers used off-the-shelf electronic design automation (EDA) tools from major players, startups and technology companies somewhere in between the two to get their chips produced. It’s been a long-accepted practice that’s shifting to a strategy where the watchwords are proprietary, customized and differentiated.

It started as well-respected semiconductor companies began moving processor design in-house to realize better cost-effectiveness, eliminate the middleman and, most importantly, differentiate their products from their competitors by implementing a proprietary environment. They built portfolios of proprietary intellectual property (IP) customized and differentiated from their competitors, producing high-performing, power-efficient computer chips for autonomous driving, cloud, 5G, networking and other applications. Now comes “bespoke EDA,” a derivative of bespoke silicon and a hybrid strategy taking hold throughout the world of chip design.

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