Tackling EDA’s Broken Business Model: Blaze DFM

EDA vendors are struggling to survive when they should be engaged innovation. Innovation, including business model innovation, is beginning to emerge on the fringes of EDA. Here I talk with Blaze DFM CEO Jacob Jacobsson about the EDA environment and how a small company you may have never heard of, is slowly changing the game.

More >

How Chip Toolmakers Can Survive

If the leaders of the semiconductor industry took a moment to think about the future, they would come to the conclusion that electronic design automation (EDA) vendors deserve royalties from the chips they help design and make successful.

A small EDA company, Blaze DFM, has made some progress along these lines. The Sunnyvale, Calif., company, which makes tools that increase the yield of chips, gets royalty fees from chip makers.

More >

Interview with Blaze co-founder Dave Reed

Blaze co-founder Dave Reed is interviewed by David Heller of EDA Cafe.

More >

Blaze DFM at the 45th Design Automation Conference

What: Blaze DFM at the 45th Design Automation Conference (DAC)
When: June 9-12, 2008
Where: Anaheim Convention Center, Anaheim California

More >

The DFM melting pot

Blaze DFM has not shed the DFM part of its name because it continues to address this market. One possible reason is that one of its co-founders Dr. Andrew Kahng in a recognized leader in the field and thus can provide technical insights that are often superior than those of the competition. To be sure, the company has also looked for innovative ways to address the market. About two months ago Blaze DFM announced an agreement with TSMC that the company called an innovative business arrangement.

More >

Mentor's Ponte purchase consolidates DFM technology

There's still a place for independent DFM providers, said Dave Reed, vice president of marketing and business development at Blaze DFM. "The problem of parametric yield loss in advanced nodes provides ample market opportunity to support a pure-play DFM company such as Blaze," he said. "I think market size was the biggest challenge for the physical DFM tool providers such as Ponte."

More >