An interview with Henry Potts of Mentor Graphics.
Printed Circuit Design & Fab
recently had the opportunity to talk with Henry Potts, vice president
and general manager of Mentor Graphic’s Systems Design Division, on the
topic of next generation design tools.
One of the
hot topics today is the idea of co-design, and with it collaboration
and concurrent design. Potts shared his thoughts about the fundamental
importance of this approach with PCD&F. It is clear that
these methodologies will form the cornerstone of the electronics design
process as we move into the next generation of design tools and
electronic device requirements.
Co-design methods
will facilitate the design of electronic products across all
disciplines, from chip to package to board. These collaborative design
efforts will provide a platform for future success. The industry is
quickly coming to the realization that the best way to shorten the
design cycle, get products to market faster and avoiding costly respins
is to embrace some form of co-design system. These systems will allow
all of the individual design specialists an opportunity to work
concurrently towards an optimized design.
We are
entering a new era of innovation in electronics design solutions. I am
sure that the increased communication that will be fostered by these
multi-disciplined, multifaceted, and even multinational system design
teams is going to reshape the industry for the better.
PCD&F:
In second half of 2007, sales of EDA tools to the printed circuit
segment were down, compared to the previous year. How would you
characterize this decline? Is it cyclic or have some fundamental market
forces changed?
Potts: Actually, Mentor
Graphics did not experience a decline in the second half or
year-to-year (2006 to 2007). Revenues actually increased for us in the
PCB Systems Design category. That said, a downturn in the total market
could be due to the cyclic nature of term deals that tend to run at 2-3
year intervals.
PCD&F: In the same
period, there has been a notable shift in the sales of EDA tools
outside of North America. What do you see with regards to the migration
of PCB design outside of the U.S.? What areas are growing and what has
been their growth rate over the past 3-5 years?
Potts:
Of course we see Asia as a growing market over the past few years. Part
of this growth is due to the migration of electronics companies’ design
and production to that region, and part of it is due to the increasing
complexity of the designs that they are doing. No longer can they use
just low-end layout tools, but now have to use full design flows with
sophisticated high-speed analysis, library and data management, and
support for advanced technologies such as HDI and Embedded Passives. We
also see them continually looking for ways to improve productivity and
decrease design cycle times. We are now providing them with
capabilities that enable multiple designers to work on the same design
simultaneously and enterprise-wide management of libraries and design
data – very leading edge technology that they are willing to pay for to
meet their aggressive business needs.
PCD&F: Do you see companies hesitant to pay for the next generation PCB design tools, viewing them as commodity products?
Potts:
Quite the opposite. We see more and more companies understanding that
the design of the PCB is, in fact, where they can achieve a competitive
edge and meet their very aggressive business needs. Getting a lower
cost, more-functionality-in-a-smaller-box product to market quicker
than their competition comes down to how well they can innovate on the
PCB, the productivity of their designers, and efficiency of their
complete product development and delivery process. Companies that
understand this look at the return on investment in their PCB systems
design technologies and are willing to pay for the most sophisticated
and innovative design technologies.
PCD&F:
You specifically mentioned the need to offer a “complete product
development and delivery process.” Are you saying that PCB systems
design solution suppliers like Mentor must provide capabilities outside
of pure PCB design?
Potts: Yes. Focusing
solely on just improving productivity or design cycle time in the PCB
process is necessary, but can only go so far to meet a company’s
aggressive business needs. Collaboration and efficiencies across all of
the disciplines involved in the supply chain are required. Mentor is
providing capabilities that span disciplines such as FPGA/PCB
co-design, ECAD/MCAD viewing and collaboration, change management that
couples design with procurement and manufacturing, manufacturability
functions that bring products to higher yields quicker, and multiple
collaboration tools that enable globally dispersed or mixed technology
specialists to participate in the design process.
PCD&F: We
conduct a salary survey for the PCB designers each year, and one thing
we have been tracking over the past few years is the “aging” of the
design community in the U.S. Do you see this condition as a problem,
and if so, what would be some potential solutions you would propose?
Potts:
It is true that compared to a country like China, we see an age
difference in the average designer. And with the rapid increase of
high-speed and advanced technologies we see the continuing need for the
skills of these designers, young or older, to grow. Also, one of our
areas of focus is to make our tools as easy to learn and use as
possible and supply them in a seamlessly integrated flow. This makes
the learning process much quicker so the that designers can keep up
with rapidly changing technologies and business pressures.
PCD&F: Tell
me a bit about the Mentor shrink-wrapped vs. the more extensive design
tool platforms. What do you see for the future of these products,
particularly for the overseas markets?
Potts: We
see the continuing need for design flows targeted at both the small to
mid-sized company or organization, as well as the larger enterprise.
Neither of these tool sets can lack in the ability to design complex
boards. The basic difference is the support of the larger companies,
where management of their intellectual property, such as libraries,
design data and design constraints across global organizations is
necessary. Also, capabilities that enable multiple designers of the
same or different disciplines to concurrently collaborate on a product
design are more important for the larger company than the smaller. In
overseas markets such as Asia, we see a very evident shift from just
lower-end flows to a mix of both lower and high end.
PCD&F: As
compared to the U.S., do overseas customers need more or less support,
and is that support more or less difficult or expensive to provide to
them?
Potts: Actually, we don’t see a big
difference since Mentor is large enough that we can support both
domestic and overseas customers with local support teams. It eliminates
any language barriers and time differences.
PCD&F: There
has been some talk about electronics systems co-design. Please explain
the Mentor approach to system co-design. Any success stories that you
would like to share?
Potts: Co-design,
collaboration, concurrent design are absolutely needed and being
adopted by best-in-class electronics companies today. We as PCB systems
design tool suppliers will continue to incrementally improve the
productivity of the designer. This will help, but enabling concurrent
collaboration within PCB layout, across the different disciplines
within electronic design (engineer, designer, RF specialist, high speed
or EMI guru, thermal management, etc.), across the multiple disciplines
in product design (e.g., ECAD with MCAD), and between ECAD and the rest
of the enterprise (e.g., procurement, manufacturing) can result in
quantum improvements in process efficiency, time-to-market and
time-to-manufacturing–volume (profit). Mentor has many of these
capabilities at this time and is developing several more.
These
collaboration and concurrent design tools are being readily adopted by
companies today. For instance, Alcatel Shanghai Bell reported to us
that they were able to cut their PCB board design time from 13 to 5
weeks by using our XtremePCB product. XtremePCB enabled them to assign
up to 5 engineers to perform placement and routing on a very complex
board simultaneously.
PCD&F:
Is remote collaboration being used to anywhere near its full extent? If
not, what are the roadblocks to more widespread adaptation?
Potts: We
see some global companies capitalizing on dispersed and specialized
designers to design boards simultaneously and thus turn a serial
process into a parallel one. For example, some companies have designers
that specialize in digital, others in analog or RF. With our Xtreme
technology, these designers can operate over a WAN network just like
they were sitting in the same room and perform the design on the same
PCB database simultaneously.
PCD&F:
Over the past 3-5 years, the design community has struggled to
integrate RoHS compliance into its vocabulary – and it appears that
this challenge is behind us. What do you see as the next big challenge
for designers looking out 18 to 36 months? What changes will be needed
to meet these challenges?
Potts: The most
obvious challenge is meeting the extremely aggressive business drivers
that most electronics companies are facing to compete and stay
profitable. We hear goals from our customers – such as a 50% reduction
in design cycle times, 30% increase in productivity – all while
creating the most innovative, lowest cost competitive products to the
marketplace, quicker. Some of this can be enabled with better design
and collaboration tools as we have discussed. Some will require the use
of advanced PCB fabrication technologies such as HDI, embedded,
system-in-package, and high-speed into the multi-GHz. So the challenges
are multifaceted. The use of new tools and technologies will require
adaptation and learning of new skills. But perhaps the most radical
challenge will be the breaking down of organizational boundaries
required to implement enterprise wide collaboration. No more
over-the-wall communication and paper trail negotiations. Real-time
communication, bi-directional design change negotiations and
management, and total supply chain involvement will be the norms.
PCD&F: Tell me a bit about the Mentor roadmap for PCB design tools looking out to 2015.
Potts:
I think we’ve talked about some of these already but basically our
strategy is in three areas. One is continuing to improve the
productivity of the engineer and designer as they use the most advanced
technologies. Another is to extend beyond PCB design and provide an
ever-increasing collaboration capability across the entire enterprise,
involving all disciplines and organizations. A third, which we have not
spoken about, is to create a much tighter design-to-manufacturing loop.
This comes in two forms. One is to better reflect the knowledge gained
in manufacturing back into the design process, so OEMs can improve
their profitability by first pass higher yields and faster
time-to-volume. The second way is to provide tools that address the
design-to-manufacturing handoff with design for test, assembly,
fabrication, documentation, etc. with target manufacturer analysis and
verification.
PCD&F: How is Mentor
differentiating itself and its products from those of its competitors –
and how successful would you say Mentor has been in this regard?
Potts:
PCB systems design is a prime Mentor business focus and this has
enabled us to invest our R&D resources at two times to four times
the rate of our nearest competitor. Investment at this high rate has
enabled us to provide innovative technologies such as Xtreme, our
topology planner and router, our high-speed analysis and verification,
our design and library management, our analog, thermal and EMI
analysis, our FPGA/PCB co-design and many others that differentiate us.
Now in addition to PCB design we are expanding into the enterprise-wide
collaboration capabilities. Electronics companies recognize how they
can achieve their business goals now and in the future as we continue
to invest. Our ever-increasing customer list and our worldwide PCB
design market share leadership proves that we are meeting the demands
of the industry. PCD&F
Henry Potts
joined Mentor Graphics in March of 1999 as vice president and general
manager of the Systems Design Division. Potts brings more than 33 years
of experience in the electronics industry to his role at Mentor
Graphics, including experience in IC & systems development, and
serving as president and CEO of a venture capital funded startup. He
served as a senior vice president for Hitachi Semiconductor, where he
oversaw all marketing and product development activities for
microprocessor and embedded products for the US markets. He has also
held senior management positions at Motorola, VLSI Technology,
Schlumberger and Texas Instruments. Potts has a BS degree in Electrical
Engineering from University of Southwestern Louisiana.
