What is FlexEDA? – How Does FlexEDA Work?

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Table of Contents

How FlexEDA works
Benefits of FlexEDA
How to Get Started

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Definition

FlexEDA, which stands for Flexible EDA, is a business model of Synopsys Cloud that provides access to unlimited, on-demand electronic design automation (EDA) software licenses. Synopsys Cloud offers two deployments—Bring Your Own Cloud (BYOC) and Software as a Service (SaaS)—that are powered by the FlexEDA model.

With the Synopsys Cloud FlexEDA model, you can:

Prioritize Time-to-Results: With no constraints on licenses and compute, chip designers can focus more on the quality of results and time to market.
Rethink EDA Project Schedules: FlexEDA enables chip designers to schedule projects differently, allowing more time for innovation and less time waiting for results.
Simplify EDA Software Licensing: FlexEDA offers true pay-per-use, on-demand access, simplifying the licensing process.
Start Small and Scale Up: With no minimum spend thresholds or size limits on cloud engagement, FlexEDA allows you to start small and grow as needed.
Embrace a Start-up Friendly EDA SaaS Environment: Synopsys Cloud SaaS provides a comprehensive solution for the entire chip design lifecycle, complete with advanced infrastructure, cloud-optimized EDA tools, and pre-defined, end-to-end standardized flows.

The Synopsys Cloud FlexEDA business model presents a paradigm shift from the traditional way EDA tools are purchased and used. Instead of purchasing a specific number of licenses for specific tools, customers purchase a specific quantity of cloud credits that can be used for any number of licenses for any enabled tools. Cloud credits are the single currency for EDA tools, licenses, and infrastructure (in case of SaaS).

Under Synopsys Cloud FlexEDA, EDA tools are always available to customers. With the flexibility of licensing under FlexEDA, without pre-defined infrastructure constraints or prior license quantity commitments, users can take full advantage of the elasticity and scalability of the cloud. The Synopsys Cloud FlexEDA model allows designers to approach each project in a whole new way, letting their design and project timeline needs dictate how they’ll use chip design and verification tools, rather than the other way around.

How Does FlexEDA Work?

Following the Synopsys Cloud FlexEDA model, users sign a single cloud contract and purchase cloud credits. These cloud credits are used for all transactions in the BYOC (Bring Your Own Cloud) or SaaS deployments of Synopsys Cloud.

In BYOC, customers can run Synopsys EDA tools with pay-per-use access. Usage is metered and cloud credits are deducted per the by-the-minute access rates.

In a Synopsys Cloud SaaS deployment, cloud credits can be used for access to tools (called Apps), flows (called Instances), and Infrastructure (storage, compute).

The flexibility of unlimited, on-demand EDA tool license availability is at the core of the FlexEDA model. Chip designers design, schedule, and run specific EDA jobs based on where they are in the design cycle and their power, performance, and area (PPA) goals. Synopsys Cloud will automatically scale the EDA software based on the elastic cloud-scale infrastructure enabled by the designer for this specific job. This reduces the time to results and helps to improve quality of design.

Let’s look at an example: A design team wants to start a job with 100 copies of a tool license running on 200 cores of compute. The team will pay for the time it takes to run that job; for example, 480 minutes. The design team pays for 480 minutes for those 100 copies of the license running on the 200 cores for that job.

That same team can pivot to a new portion of the design the next day, where they start with 1,000 copies of a tool license running on 20,000 cores. This scale-up in licenses and compute would reduce the run to 60 minutes. And the team would pay for the compute and the tool licenses used for only 60 minutes. Time to results is reduced by 8x.

The Benefits of FlexEDA

The Synopsys Cloud FlexEDA business model, available for BYOC and SaaS deployments of Synopsys Cloud, provides the benefits of unlimited EDA license availability with a true pay-per-use approach on a per-minute basis. Cloud credits are deducted after actual use. Most Synopsys EDA tools are available under the pay-per-use pricing model.

EDA products which are not cloud scalable can be licensed via a cloud subscription licenses (CSLs) pricing model, much like the regular on-prem licensing model. CSLs are purchased using cloud credits. CSLs are of fixed term and quantity; in other words, these are paid upfront and cloud credits are deducted before use.

Other benefits of FlexEDA include:

On-Demand Scaling: FlexEDA allows up or down scaling of EDA tool licenses based on project needs, with pre-optimized compute for each type of EDA workload.
Leverage Cloud Elasticity and Scalability: Run unlimited parallel jobs and regressions, taking full advantage of the elasticity and scalability of cloud computing.
Manage Tool Usage Effectively: FlexEDA enables you to manage tool usage by users, granting or limiting access using a browser-based UI portal.
Access Browser-Based EDA Workload Management: Benefit from browser-based access for end-to-end EDA workload needs, with native advanced scheduling, virtual desktop, and project and user management capabilities.
Integrate Deeply with Cloud Stack: FlexEDA allows deep integration with the cloud stack to leverage auto-scaling, fault-tolerance, and metering capabilities of the cloud.
Ensure In-Depth Security: FlexEDA provides robust security that elevates the cloud service provider’s shared responsibility model, ensuring customer data is secured at all levels with an architecture that fully integrates with all security controls.

How to Get Started

To get started using Synopsys Cloud under either the BYOC or SaaS deployment, customers will need to sign a single cloud contract and purchase cloud credits. Cloud credits are used toward Synopsys EDA tools and infrastructure in the SaaS deployment.

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