Essential Cloud Computing Features for EDA

We've all heard of the cloud, that amorphous delivery of computing services over the Internet. Myriad cloud-based solutions exist, including servers, storage, databases, networking, software, analytics, and intelligence. The article discusses the essential cloud computing features for electronic design automation (EDA) that benefit chip designers and small businesses with chip design projects.

For many chip designers, the cloud has become a path to drive innovation and productivity. With the cloud, you can scale design and verification capabilities whenever you need them. You will receive faster, higher quality results as well as better prices.

Cloud computing features offer chip design teams access to the best computing and storage resources. Chip designers benefit from quick ramp-up and flexible pay-as-you-go models.

Scalability

You can scale up cloud-based systems in minutes. You can therefore quickly expand or reduce your EDA infrastructure depending on demand. Just tell the cloud service you need more capacity, and it will come online within minutes. As soon as you're done, you can turn the capacity off. To add more EDA capacity to your on-premises network, however, you would have to reassign existing capacity or add more servers, which could take months. 

Network Segmentation 

Large chip makers often have several design centers worldwide. IP for a project may need to stay within certain geographical boundaries by law or contract. Network segmentation in cloud networks can enforce rules based on geography. 

Redundancy  

Cloud redundancy and on-premises redundancy differ immensely. On-premises networks can't compete with cloud systems, which store redundant servers in both a data center and worldwide. With the cloud, your data stays safe from localized disasters. 

Single Point of Failure

EDA grids usually contain several built-in points of failure. For example, a central job dispatcher usually runs on a single node. If something disrupts that node, all EDA work halts. The same goes for EDA license, configuration management, and version-control servers. Since cloud networks are based on microservices, they don't suffer from the single-point-of-failure vulnerabilities that on-premises networks do. 

Ease of Use

Designers who are used to on-premises EDA should find the cloud much easier to use. Most notably, the cloud provides faster turnaround times due to on-demand, real-time provisioning. Implementing EDA tools in the cloud usually won’t require any special processes or knowledge on the user’s part. 

Synopsys is committed to providing fast, secure, and efficient cloud-based EDA solutions. We optimize chip design and verification with cloud-optimized flows.

We also work closely with public cloud vendors—Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud Platform, and Amazon Web Services—to enhance your experience on their platforms. We understand what high-performance computing (HPC) chip designers need from an EDA perspective to produce chips for HPC workloads. 

As computational demands grow and design and verification cycles shorten, pressure on the semiconductor industry grows. Cloud solutions from Synopsys can help ensure your chip design is faster, cheaper, and overall higher quality.

Synopsys is the industry’s largest provider of electronic design automation (EDA) technology used in the design and verification of semiconductor devices, or chips. With Synopsys Cloud, we’re taking EDA to new heights, combining the availability of advanced compute and storage infrastructure with unlimited access to EDA software licenses on-demand so you can focus on what you do best – designing chips, faster. Delivering cloud-native EDA tools and pre-optimized hardware platforms, an extremely flexible business model, and a modern customer experience, Synopsys has reimagined the future of chip design on the cloud, without disrupting proven workflows.

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Synopsys technology drives innovations that change how people work and play using high-performance silicon chips. Let Synopsys power your innovation journey with cloud-based EDA tools. Sign up to try Synopsys Cloud for free!