Enabling the Automotive Design Chain with Virtualization
Frank Schirrmeister, Director, Product Marketing,
System-level Solutions, Synopsys Inc.
Mark Williams, Director, Solutions Marketing, Synopsys Inc.
As recent headlines clearly indicate, the automotive industry
is struggling to manage the exploding growth of electronics
content and complexity. Already, 40 percent of vehicle cost
is attributed to electronics and software, and 50 to 70 percent of
electronic control unit (ECU) development cost is due to software. As
a result of this dramatic increase in software content and complexity,
meeting quality and reliability standards today requires analysis and
diagnosis of complex hardware/software problems and a change in
development methodology.
In addition, the automotive industry is challenged by an increasing
need to reduce design cycle times and cost. Results from a 2008
Dupont study showed that 32 percent of respondents indicated that
"cost reduction" was the number one challenge facing the automotive
design and engineering community. When asked what improvement
would be needed to strengthen the industry, an overwhelming 53
percent of users responded with "increase[d] collaboration across the
value/design chain."
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Shift in Consumer Focus Drives Evolution of the Semiconductor Industry
John Brewer, Vice President, Corporate and Business Development, SiGe Semiconductor
A decade ago, consumer demand for electronics products fixated
on high-end primary features—"my mobile phone has a color
screen," "my laptop has a 1 GHz processor," "my television
screen is larger than yours"—for which consumers willingly paid
premium prices. Today's electronics consumer, however, has become
much more sophisticated and, therefore, much more demanding.
David Carr, business writer for The New York Times, framed this
sophistication recently during an interview on "The Charlie Rose
Show." Relating his decision to buy the newly released Apple iPad
for his family, Carr commented, "I love the features, I love the
performance, but what drove me to buy this for my family was
the $499 price." Economics defines value as the ratio of quality
to price, or putting it in the language of T-Mobile's advertising,
"getting more." The proliferation of electronic device features and
performance means today's consumer assumes quality and buys on
price.
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