'90% predictability, 90% reliability'

Co-founder and VP Engineering at Open-Silicon Satya Gupta was also the

founder and director of engineering for Intel Microelectronics Services, a

company he served for 12 years. Known for his contributions in physical design

for high-speed circuits, he had also led the efforts for creating design

methodology for ASIC design, targeted for fast turn-around time and predictable

schedules. The recipient of the prestigious IEEE Gordon-Bell award for high

performance computing explains to Goutam Das of Dataquest how the ASIC business

has been really confused.

Satya Gupta, Co-founder and VP Engineering, Open-Silicon

How will your Bangalore design center help in accelerating

R&D for next generation technologies?



Open-Silicon is not focused in accelerating R&D for next generation

technologies-rather we are focused on increasing the predictability and

reliability of the ASIC industry. We focus on the 85% of ASICs that represent

what we refer to as "mainstream" ASICs, and we use fixed methodology

to design and manufacture these ASICs. Open-Silicon needs different design

centers to make our mainstream ASICs. We are advancing our methodologies to

incorporate new technology, and will keep moving the curve forward, but our

focus will never be to work on the "bleeding edge" science projects.

Does your software system, IC Catalyst, provide complete

workflow automation?



Automating the design and manufacturing processes is critical to increasing

the predictability and reliability of the ASIC industry. IC-Catalyst is an

integrated platform technology that Open-Silicon has developed to address the

entire scope of silicon engineering activity, from IC design all the way to

end-of-life. The ability of IC-Catalyst to handle all phases of IC design and

manufacturing directly translates to more predictable, reliable and

cost-effective silicon solutions.

A common problem faced by ASIC design teams is a distinct

lack of learning from other teams or projects done in the same company. Without

an automated or a centralized knowledge base, teams fail to learn from past

experiences. It consists of three interlinked modules, each designed to address

a phase of the silicon life cycle.

Open-Silicon says that semiconductor companies are going

to be design-less as well as fab-less. Why do you feel that way?



In the 60s and 70s, Integrated Silicon Companies handled the entire process

for their customers. These traditional ASIC providers utilized their own fabs to

produce customer's chips. 80s saw the Emergence of Fabless Companies.

Have you been successful in lowering chip costs?



Open-Silicon continually works with its supply-chain partners to re-think

the processes that are used in all steps of making ASICs. We have had several

successes, which have resulted in lowering chip costs.