( ESNUG 601 Item 2 ) --------------------------------------------------------- [09/04/26]
Subject: 27 readers on Shankar's 100 hr work week, yoinking, AI, Siemens EDA, Ryan Silk
100 HR WORK WEEK SHANKAR: Rumor was right after DAC'26 in Long Beach, Synopsys
had an internal reorg where all 1,000 Synopsys central AI R&D folks were
unified under one umbrella with Shankar Krishnamoorthy, Chief of Product
Development of SNPS, as the head of that AI R&D division.
My first reaction was: "It's good that they're focusing on AI. But... it's NOT
good that Shankar was installed as the Head of their AI division. Shankar
already has waaay too many direct reports as the Chief of ALL R&D -- being the
Head of AI will spread Shankar's time (and mindshare) across too many tasks.
(Bad idea!)
What I did NOT know was Shankar would be Head of All SNPS AI for only 1 month...
- from Sassine & Shankar yoink Amit Gupta from Siemens EDA to run SNPS AI R&D
---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----
There are only 168 hours total in a 7 day week.
Shankar working 100 of those hours leaves only 68 non-working hours.
That leaves only 9.7 hours per day over 7 days for Shankar to eat, sleep, drive
to and from work. No way he's doing that.
- [ An Anon EDA User ]
---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----
The only time I've ever done 100 hrs a week was during the last two weeks of
a tape-out.
- [ An Anon EDA User ]
---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----
100 hr per week? Riiiight....
- [ An Anon EDA User ]
---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----
Does Shankar have a fold out cot in the back of his office?
- [ An Anon EDA User ]
---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----
Did Shankar ever work at Broadcom before?
- [ An Anon EDA User ]
---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----
Are you including Shankar's travel time overseas in that 100 hours?
- [ An Anon EDA User ]
---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----
100 hours a week? Those are rookie numbers! He's gotta pump those numbers up!
- [ An Anon EDA User ]
---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----
I suspect that sustained 100 hour work weeks are an OSHA violation or something
like that.
- [ An Anon EDA User ]
---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----
Studies have shown that excessive work hours lead to impared work decisions.
If he's really working those hours, Sassine should put a stop to it immediately,
lest it hurt Synopsys' R&D decisions.
- [ An Anon EDA User ]
---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----
If you include travel time and dinners with customers, our Sales and Marketing
guys would come close to 80 or 90 hours a week on average.
- [ An Anon EDA Vendor ]
---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----
To test your theory, our guys used Claude AI to generate an image of Shankar working
100 hours a week for 12 months and got this:
Since we all saw Shankar's CONVERGE'26 keynote live back in March, we clearly saw
that Shankar did not have an incomplete vestigial 3rd arm missing a hand there,
so we see this as proof that Shankar is not working 100 hour work weeks at all.
Your sources were misleading you, John.
- [ An Anon EDA User ]
---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----
Did Shankar pay you to start this 100 hour work week rumor in order to help him get
a pay raise from Sassine, John?
- [ An Anon EDA Vendor ]
---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----
THREE YOINKINGS TO THE RESCUE: Long story short, sources say Sassine and Shankar
have yoinked Amit Gupta, with Jeff Dyck, and Ryan Silk -- the Top 3 AI leaders
of Solido and Siemens EDA AI fame away from Siemens EDA... Amit will now run
Shankar's 1,000-engineer SNPS AI division.
|
Yoink is an informal slang word and sound effect used to mean grabbing, taking, or stealing something quickly, usually playfully and without permission.
Yoink first appeared in a 1993 episode of "The Simpsons" TV show.
|
|
Sassine
|
Shankar
|
Amit
|
Dyck
|
Silk
|
- from Sassine & Shankar yoink Amit Gupta from Siemens EDA to run SNPS AI R&D
---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----
My twin boys have always said "yoink" whenever they stole a toy from each other.
I thought it was a made up word that only they used.
Thank you, John, for this mini Simpsons history.
- [ An Anon EDA User ]
---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----
Since you seem to love useless trivia, "yoink!" in German is "zappzerapp!".
I challenge you to write an EDA story involving "zappzerapp!".
- [ An Anon EDA Vendor ]
---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----
Amit's big 2017 AI reveal -- after being in AI stealth mode since 2005
In 2017, Amit launched Solido's AI tool for machine learning characterization.
And the engineers at DAC'17 gave it a thumbs up, making it #2 on Best of DAC 2017.
Solido machine learning, BDA Ravi, Tom Beckley SSS makes #2 for Best of 2017
The big gotcha is Amit had already been doing AI for Solido Variation Designer
for 12 years back then -- ever since he founded Solido in 2005. Apparently, it
took him until 2017 to decide that the AI/machine learning buzzwords were 'cool'
enough to publically admit to doing.
- from Sassine & Shankar yoink Amit Gupta from Siemens EDA to run SNPS AI R&D
---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----
Having 21 years of "machine learning" experience is not like having 21 years of
"artificial intelligence" experience.
The two may be similar in some ways, but they are nowhere near the same.
- [ An Anon EDA Vendor ]
---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----
AI really didn't start taking off until 2017 and it's changed a lot (like almost
on a monthly or quarterly basis) in those 9 years since 2017.
ChipStack was founded in late 2023 and acquired by Cadence in November 2025.
They made a successful EDA AI product with only 2 recent years of AI experience.
- [ An Anon EDA Vendor ]
---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----
Given a choice, I always go with the experienced veteran engineers who have lived
through the train wrecks from years gone by.
They tend not to repeat those earlier disasters.
- [ An Anon EDA User ]
---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----
FIRST TIME AROUND....
It's on the DAC 2017 Troublemaker panel when Amit first talked about Solido AI.
The live DAC'17 Troublemakers Panel
And 5 months after that DAC 2017 panel, Siemens EDA acquired Solido.
The very next year (2018), Siemens/Solido machine learning is #1 for Best of 2018.
User buzz on Siemens/Solido machine learning is #1 for Best of 2018
- from Sassine & Shankar yoink Amit Gupta from Siemens EDA to run SNPS AI R&D
---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----
It was a pleasant surprise to see Jim Hogan again. Thank you.
- [ An Anon EDA User ]
---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----
I miss Jim Hogan. He made EDA fun.
- [ An Anon EDA User ]
---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----
AMIT BARKS ABOUT SIEMENS EDA'S 81 AGENTIC AI ENGAGEMENTS
HISTORY REPEATS ITSELF: Why Sassine and Skankar hired Amit to run the SNPS AI
division was seen last month at the Long Beach DAC'26 Troublemaker Panel where
Amit barked on stage in detail on Siemens EDA having 81 agentic AI engagements.
Because he ran AI strategy and the Fuse AI platform for all of Siemens EDA,
he covered all their agentic AI achievements (as of mid-July 2026) starting with:
1. Siemens Level 5 Fuse AI partnership with Nvidia -- spanning MCP tool
interfaces, optimized skill agents, and domain-specific AI agents.
2. Questa One -- AI agents for RTL coding, verification planning, and
debug for 50x faster coverage, 8x faster gate-level DFT serial pattern
simulation, 48x faster fault simulation. MediaTek, Microsoft, ARM
3. Aprisa -- AI agents for 10x PnR productivity boost. 3x improved
compute time efficiency. 10x better PPA. MaxLinear, Samsung, Infineon
4. Calibre Vision AI -- AI agents for full DRC checking. DRC time
reduced by 50%. Samsung, AMD
5. Innovator 3D IC -- predictive multi-physics AI agents for PPA and
cost models. 25% to 75% improved productivity. Intel, Micron, Samsung
6. Veloce AI -- AI agent for 50% optimized compile time, 50% reduced
compile resources, 20% better emulation time. Marvell
7. Solido Library Characterization AI -- an AI agent for 10x improved
productivity and 10x token efficiency. Nvidia
Amit added that Siemens EDA combines GPU-accelerated tools, RL/ML to speed-up the
engines, in-tool agentic AI, and across-tool agentic AI.
Just 4 weeks after that DAC'26 Panel where Amit was bragging on stage in detail
about Siemens EDA AI tool successes, Amit gets acquired yet again!
"History doesn't repeat itself, but it often rhymes."
- Mark Twain, American humorist (1835 - 1910)
- from Sassine & Shankar yoink Amit Gupta from Siemens EDA to run SNPS AI R&D
---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----
Amit Gupta was like the Steve Jobs of Siemens AI; Ryan Silk was the Steve Wozniak
behind the scenes engineer at Siemens making all their AI actually work.
- [ An Anon EDA Vendor ]
---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----
Amit was the front facing guy to the customer senior management buying these
81 Siemens agentic AI engagements. Silk was the architect of what Amit was selling.
Ryan Silk wrote the Fuse agentic AI platform code used on each of these products.
- [ An Anon EDA Vendor ]
---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----
"Yoinking" Ryan Silk was a brilliant more. He's the guy who wrote the SW for
the AI parts of the Siemens EDA tools.
- [ An Anon EDA Vendor ]
---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----
Jeff Dyck is their 0-to-1 guy for the new Siemens AI products.
It's interesting because by hiring 0-to-1 Jeff, Shankar is making clear that
Synopsys is going to be introducing a ton more AI-enhanced products.
- [ An Anon EDA Vendor ]
---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----
---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----
---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----
WHAT'S LEFT OF SIEMENS EDA? When Amit did his farewell to Siemens EDA post on LinkedIn,
he closed with:
"To my Siemens EDA colleagues: thank you for an unforgettable journey.
To my new Synopsys colleagues: I'm excited to build the future together."
- Amit Gupta, SVP of SNPS AI, (08/30/2026)
But what was interesting was former Siemens EDA (& Mentor) CEO, Wally Rhines comment
about the migration of Siemens EDA employees over to Synopsys:
"Amit -- you've made a great contribution to Siemens!
Looks like the Mentor/Siemens team is making a real contribution to Synopsys."
- Wally Rhines, former Siemens EDA (& Mentor) CEO, (08/30/2026)
---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----
Why don't they just rename Synopsys into "Siemens EDA (South)" now?
- [ An Anon EDA Vendor ]
---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----
Shankar, Ravi, MBG, Ellow, Heiser, Amit, Dyck, Silk...
Can the last one to leave Siemens EDA remember to please turn off the lights?
- [ An Anon EDA Vendor ]
---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----
Can you please tell me what Amit's new email address at Synopsys is, John?
(Asking for a friend.)
- [ An Anon EDA Vendor ]
---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----
It'll be interesting to see how many former Siemens EDA AI guys end up writing
AI code for Synopsys tools.
- [ An Anon EDA Vendor ]
---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----
Related Articles
Sassine & Shankar yoink Amit Gupta from Siemens EDA to run SNPS AI R&D
User buzz on Siemens/Solido machine learning is #1 for Best of 2018
Solido machine learning, BDA Ravi, Beckley SSS is #2 for Best of 2017
BDA, Solido, MunEDA, and Silvaco get #5 for Best EDA of 2016
Mentor BDA AnalogFastSpice and Solido were #4 tools at DAC'15
Mentor BDA AnalogFastSpice and Solido were #4 tools at DAC'14
Berkeley DA ACE & AFS Mega, Solido variation were #4 at DAC'13
Berkeley AFS Memory Simulator, Solido PVT as #3 hot tool at DAC'12
Magma FineSim, Berkeley AFS, SNPS vs. LAVA SPICE Clouds, Solido
Solido Variation Designer, MunEDA WiCked
Join
Index
Next->Item
|
|
