( ESNUG 586 Item 1 ) ---------------------------------------------- [04/01/19]
Subject: Lip-Bu's big marquee customer spells trouble for Aart and SNPS
On this Tuesday during the CDNS 18'Q4 earning call, Lip-Bu Tan made
many references about a big breakthrough with a "market shaping"
"marquee US semiconductor company" -- plus he had to hire lots more
AE's to support it. I know he's NOT talking about Samsung because
he mentions Samsung by name many times elsewhere in this earnings
call. SO WHO IS THIS MARKET SHAPING MARQUEE U.S. SEMICONDUCTOR
COMPANY THAT LIP-BU IS BRAGGING ABOUT???
AART'S WORST NIGHTMARE: My quickie survey question (above) got 31 responses
from the DeepChip readers. It broke out to:
"Lip-Bu's Market Shaping Marquee Customer is ..."
Intel: :############################# 58%
Apple: :######## 16%
Google: :####### 13%
Amazon: :### 6%
Facebook: :### 6%
TI: :### 6%
The word is it was for $100+ million per year for 3 years for digital PnR,
Verilog simulators, and Palladium/Protium boxes.
The main reason why this is plausable is Intel is working on 7nm chips but
Intel Foundry can't provide N7. So that means Intel is buying TSMC N7
wafers -- and using more (Cadence) commercial EDA tools -- instead of
in-house EDA tools to design with -- because that's what works best with
TSMC processes.
And if it really is Intel, this is an absolute nightmare for Aart because
Intel accounts for "more that 10%" of SNPS EDA revenues.
And it's a nightmare for Sassine Ghazi, too, because before Sassine became
the GM of SNPS Digital R&D, he was the VP of SNPS North American Sales and
Intel was Sassine's main account. (OUCH!)
"Since Intel is your largest customer, do you have any comment on
what's happening there? Any share shifts that you may be seeing?"
- Jackson Ader of JPMorgan asking Aart de Geus during
the SNPS Q1 2019 Earnings Call on Feb. 20, 2019
---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----
APPLE: Everyone knows they do ARM CPU chips for their iPhones, etc. Highly
specialized, high performance, low power right now at 7nm and 5nm. Apple
was also a big SNPS customer but from what I hear for digital PnR not so
much now. (See ESNUG 547 #7.) Mind you no one EDA vendor ever "wins"
APPL 100% because APPL likes to play one EDA vendor off of another -- and
they have the budget to do so!
GOOGLE: This was the surpise candidate. Google is NOT known as a chip
design house -- but they are! It's hard to get details, but an educated
guess that most HW engineers would have is GOOG designs massive neworking
chips for search engine and email servers. Assume 7nm.
---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----
---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----
---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----
USERS SAYING INTEL
I heard Cadence did a big (like $100 million per year) deal
with Intel. All you can eat. Direct blow to Synopsys.
---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----
Intel. North of $100M.
---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----
"Marquis US semiconductor company" is code for INTEL.
---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----
There's a lot of CDNS folks helping Intel Altera.
---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----
Time to buy INTC.
---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----
Cadence is growing all over the Intel CPU and SoC design groups.
---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----
It's not much of a secret. Every time I go to an Intel site, I
see a small army of Cadence guys around.
---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----
My money is on Intel.
---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----
Everyone knows it's Intel.
---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----
Intel
---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----
INTEL(?)
---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----
My guess is Intel.
---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----
Intel is the only one big enough to cause big staffing changes.
---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----
Intel.
---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----
Intel.
Did you notice that Cadence has overtaken Synopsys in market cap?
---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----
Intel.
---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----
That one's easy. Intel.
---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----
Intel.
---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----
---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----
---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----
USERS SAYING APPLE OR GOOGLE
I know it's a fruit... Tomato???
---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----
Most likely Apple because it hires people like crazy.
---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----
My guess is Apple.
---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----
Apple or Google. Likely Apple.
---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----
How about Apple, Google, Facebook, or Amazon? All of them are
doing semiconductor now.
---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----
Google's server team.
---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----
Likely Google SoC ambitions (big hiring push and a shinny new HW
office in Bangalore) closely followed by Amazon building sever
chips. Also I hear Facebook is planning an SoC team.
---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----
---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----
---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----
USERS SAYING SOMEONE ELSE
I guess Texas Instruments, although Cadence and TI have been tight
for decades. But searching the Cadence job board for applications
engineering positions, San Jose has the most listed openings,
followed by Austin.
---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----
Texas Instruments
---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----
see who GlobalFoundries is in bed with, betcha your answer is there
---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----
Definitely NOT Microsoft :)
---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----
Altran. They're a big French chip R&D house.
---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----
Look at the evidence first. Lip-Bu just announced a big investment
in Green Hills SW ... that likely means he's diving in deep in the
auto market. Who's likely in the auto market that is a big time
semi vendor? ST Micro? NXP? Renesas?
Related Articles:
Costello on SNPS PnR "still in catch up mode" in 2 years from now
Synopsys layoffs means ICC2 rewrite is unknown for 3 to 4 years out
Engineering comments point to SNPS vs. CDNS PNR shakeout at Apple
Join
Index
Next->Item
|
|
