Electronic design automation software supplier Cadence Design Systems Inc is looking for products for the consumer market rather than ivory tower research out of its European research collaboration with SGS-Thomson Microelectronics NV, automotive systems firm Magneti Marelli SpA and the Italian National Research Council. Cadence president and chief executive Joe Costello says there will be a revolution in electronics systems in the next few years, driven by silicon and software. Only the consumer market, he reckons, will be big enough to justify the innovations coming in this area. The European collaboration will focus on advanced research into architecture and design of electronic systems critical to the European electronics industry. Particular emphasis will be given to embedded system design, advanced radio frequency design and inductive learning techniques. Initially, its priorities will be automotive electronics, reflecting the interests of Magneti Marelli and SGS-Thomson. Ear ly development projects are likely to involve design of electronic systems for engine control to maximize fuel efficiency and minimize emissions. The group’s view of the future car is an electronic center, connected to a global network such as the Internet through wireless interconnections. It will be controlled by microprocessors, and linked to the Internet for applications such as continuous traffic updates and optimum route planning.
Additional research centers
The collaboration will be based at Cadence’s new European research laboratory in Rome. The laboratory is an extension of the company’s existing operations in Berkeley, California. It will be run by Cadence board member and University of California at Berkeley professor Alberto Sangiovanni-Vincentelli. In addition to Rome, additional research centers will be located initially at the Politecnico of Turin, Italy, and at INESC in Lisbon, Portugal. Sangiovanni-Vincentelli said he is keen to promote closer links between academia and business in Europe. In the US, he says, 50% of Phds stay in universities, but the other 50% go into the commercial research world. The European research laboratory will aim to entice academics into the business world, and to forge links with academic institutions around the world. It will also fund Phd studies and take undergraduates in to work on specific projects, Sangiovanni said. He says the European collaboration will not necessarily be limited to the existing partners. Cadence will possibly look for partners in other sectors, particularly telecommunications, he said. This is a research collaboration, not a commercial venture, and the research will be published and available in the public domain, Sangiovanni-Vincentelli said.
