Maybe you missed the news (as I did), and only caught it once the Thanks Giving turkey had settled - but great news it is indeed!

Slower than other platforms (eg. Facebook Connect), LinkedIn has been integrating out into the web, but now the pace is really picking up. 

On November 9th LinkedIn announced the Twitter partnership, and then came the really exciting news - the doors really flew open with an official LinkedIn Platform play on November 23rd.

We’ve been waiting for this a long time.  Ever since we enabled the import of LinkedIn Profiles into your Xuropa Profile we’ve wanted to enable our users to move data smoothly between the two platforms. We’re not about re-inventing wheels if we don’t have to.

Currently, we’re on a march to improve the overall usability of the Xuropa Platform.  But look forward to some interesting integrations in the future.

Posted under Features, Xuropa, business, marketing

First of all, an apology for bombarding my Twitter followers with news tweets.  I made the mistake of experimenting with my personal account and learned the downside of “open-air” product development.  The spigot has been turned off. 

This past week we’ve been experimenting with Twitter feeds and automation with the aim of solving a growing industry problem.  Ironically, the aim of our Twitter development work is to increase the SNR of industry news rather than decrease it.  We also aim to improve a news stream’s utility for the rest of the industry while overcoming a common user behavior.

There is a very large number of sources of news and valuable opinion to track in our industry.  The Xuropa platform gathers about 80 streams from across the industry which often yields over 400 items per day.  And the number of sources is actually growing - more blogs covering narrower and deeper segments of knowledge; and new neighboring industries such as Cloud Computing and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) are starting to become of interest.  (By the way, if there’s a source that you think is important to the community you can add it yourself.)

And here’s the reason for the development:  While having all of your news in one place helps (a feed reader, or a customizable page like iNews on Xuropa, for example) , there is still an awful lot of news out there to scan through and know what is and is not of value.  Everyone is busy, and time is getting more scarce.

The most effective way to get the insight of what should be read is to leverage the community (”crowd sourcing“).  What the community reads is likely to be what is most valuable to read and should bubble up to the top for others to read. 

This is the basic principle behind Digg, but Digg doesn’t help electronic design.  We simply do not have a large enough community to compete with the volume of Consumer Electronics readers, for example.  “Using OCP and extensions to support system-level cache coherence” is never going to get to the top of Digg.  But it is currently #6 in today’s Top News in Xuropa.  ie. If you go to Xuropa iNews you’ll get a good idea of what news is being read and what you should maybe read yourself.  (There are still some discrepancies that we’re working on as we’re increasing the sophistication of the system, but you’ll get the idea.)

So, why Twitter?  This is all part of the “dissaggreated web”.  Specifically, you shouldn’t have to go to a particular website to get a utility it offers.  It sounds counter-intuitive, but that’s the way things are going. 

You shouldn’t have to come to Xuropa to read the article, but we need to make a note that a particular article has been read and that contributes to the ranking of that article.  The bigger the dataset we have to work on, the better the results we can present to the community.

While this is just the start of a small piece of what we’re doing on Xuropa, I hope this explains a little bit about where we see this going.

So, we’ve learned a lot in this past week.  (Unfortunately for some I did not learn fast enough.)  As always, any input, suggestions, or requests you may have, drop us a line, tweet, email, or comment.  Just no letters please - save the tree.

And finally, thank you to all those that provided feedback on this project.

- James

Posted under Community, Features, Xuropa, industry

Searching through Twitter I came across an intriguing post by Josh Bernoff (Forrester Analyst, author, and blogger).  New research: B2B buyers have very high social participation.

I think that we’re past the point now where people deny the importance of the web in the selling process, but for those still in doubt you have to read these statistics.

Social Technographics of Technology Decision Makers

Some statistical highlights:

So, the bottom line - if you want to engage the decision makers in your target customers you need to be using social media.

There are different platforms and tools for different purposes.  Your challenge is to build marketing processes around these platforms and leverage the tools available:

1. Xuropa: it’s the only online community dedicated to electronic design.  Professionals, products, companies, news, and the tools to build your own community within Xuropa.
   - Register your products so decision makers can find them.
   - Ask your existing customers to write quick reviews or rate your products - this is important to help prospects find you and immediately get a valid and objective opinion of your product.
   - If you really want to engage your customers, provide an Online Lab where they can try the products out for themselves!
2. LinkedIn: participating in groups would be useful, but this is mostly used by people looking for jobs or contract work.  I don’t see too much product or technology disussion here.
3. FaceBook: A social network ostensibly.  Not much in the way of serious technology discussion that I’ve seen.  However, still an opportunity to engage.
4. Blog: You need to be positioning your company and products within the context of your customers.  Answer questions that they would ask, like “why would I use this technology?”, and “what problem does this technology solve”.  Don’t come at your blog from a marketing pitch perspective.  That won’t help you from an engagement or an SEO perspective.
5. Twitter: That is an “interesting” way to engage that I’m still trying to get the handle of myself.  It has helped me a number of times, but it’s a tough thing to systemize currently given the limitations of the tools available.

It’s not too late to get started…but you have to get started!  Now!

Posted under Features, Xuropa, industry, marketing

Great - another acronym.  As twitter grows I expect more of these to come along.  Anyway, I saw it this morning on Harry Gries’ blog, and it stands for “Yet Another Social Network”.

Harry painstakingly gathered tweets from a thread and tied them all together into an interesting conversation.  You would not have got this conversation if you a) had not been “following” every member of the conversation and b) not been on Twitter at the exact time it was going on.  So, thanks Harry!

I put a pretty long comment on Harry’s blog, but there’s a point I’d like to emphasize.

JL Gray was wondering if “we” needed another social network when it came to Xuropa.  Of course, my answer to that is - he’s right, we need a professional network.  At the same time he was making that comment he added that using Cadence tools on Xuropa was “cool”.  And that’s the whole point - using the actual Cadence tools with no downloads, plug-ins, or license agreements is very cool.  But more to the point - it’s useful.  Xuropa is about providing a community that is useful and specific to your career and work.

Within a Xuropa Online Lab you can use the tools and ask questions of the tool’s application engineer directly; read the manual, or watch a video about how to use the tool.  At the same time, if you want to twitter about it, great!  Write a blog post, wonderful! Write about it on someone’s “wall”, knock yourself out!  Each of these social networks has its purpose and focus (or not).

Here’s a video introduction to one of the Cadence MIPI Labs on Xuropa:

This is what Xuropa is about.  Connecting engineers with technology.  The rest is up to you.

Posted under Community, Features, Xuropa, industry, marketing

Considering the number of open source tools available to create the basics of an online community site, it is tempting to go this route to leverage the ubiquity of the web.  Indeed, a couple of companies within electronic design have done this.  However, there are some fundamental reasons why this is a very bad idea and ultimately won’t work.

It’s only when you get into the web and community building business that you understand that there are two key elements to the process:

• Building the platform (software)
• Building the community (people)

It is easy to think that installing the software and configuring it is the hardest part.  This is the “build it and they will come” mentality.  Dead wrong.  If it’s on your own website there’s a great deal of work and maintenance required.  If it’s on an unrelated platform, you’ve just made your job harder for yourself.

If you’re a budget constrained organization take a look at the amount of effort and length of time it took John Cooley to build his audience (it’s not really a “community”).  A heck of a lot of guerilla marketing to get on everybody’s radar (and I would not want to maintain that site).  Or take Janick Bergeron’s Verification Guild.  It’s a relatively more modern web platform that allows interaction, but it has taken him years to build that community.

The problem is, you’re on your own.  Without some heavy duty marketing, how are you going to cut through the noise of the web?  It’s not the tool you use, but the fundamental marketing principles and effort behind the way you use the tool.

You on your own

There is another way  - to build your community within a group of communities with a point of commonality.  This way, there is a resonance from those around you that amplifies your efforts to build your own specific community.

So, for electronic design, you want to be building your community within a larger online electronic design community…this is Xuropa.

Your community on Xuropa

Building an online community is an on-going effort.  It needs to be fed and watered over time - daily.  This is hard to do when you’re a resource limited company.  But if you’re in amongst a number of other communities with a similar background, their efforts will help yours.  Leverage.

Of course, in addition to community functionality, you can have your software product at the heart of your community in an Online Lab.  That’s something that no other solution out there can provide.

So, please don’t waste your time, effort and money because the software’s “easy” to install and free.  You’re just taking a technical short cut that will make the whole process harder and the likelihood that you’ll achieve your objectives little to none.

Posted under Features, Xuropa, industry, marketing

We’ve just completed a new video providing a summary of some of the features of the Xuropa Online Electronic Design Community.  The biggest challenge was keeping the video short and choosing which features to highlight. 

The only way to really understand exactly what the Xuropa Community is about and what it can do for you is to register and sign-in.  But for those that would like to “look before they leap” - enjoy:

Here’s the transcript:

“Unlike any other online community, the Xuropa community is dedicated to the entire electronic design industry.  It has been designed and built for electronic design professionals by electronic design professionals.

Among the many tools Within this select community you can:

1. Use actual electronic design software to learn new skills or consider new tool acquisitions

Online Lab Learning and Exploration Environment

2. View and navigate the industry and your network as a visual map

The Industry Mapped Around You

3. See what news is hot to read through a peer voting tool

Peer Voting Tool Filters Hot News to the Top

4. Gain recognition for your experience and expertise within the industry.

Within a Xuropa Online Lab you gain access to actual electronic design tools for you to use diretly via your web browser.  There are no downloads, no installations and no configuration necessary.  Within an Online Lab, in this case it is the Cadence MIPI Verification Lab, you have the tool and all of the related documentation at your fingertips.  Use this area to learn about a new protocol, a new tool and verification methodology.  You can also use this environment to evaluate the products in your consideration for licensing them from the vendor.  Again, without the need to install anythng on your local workstation.

We put you at the center of the electronic design industry.  Based upon your professional profile, we map all of the electronic design professionals within the community.  This way you can see those people with similar backgrounds who might be interesting to network with.  You can also begin to understand the portability of your skills and specializations into different fields and domains.

To do this we go further than any other online networking tool.  Within your Xuropa Professional Profile you add Specializations, such as RTL Design Verification or System Level Architect.  You can also add specific skills, such as protocols, software languages or verification methodologies.

News articles are brought in from all over the web and ranked by the number of views and the number of votes each has received.  We also categorize each article into different fields so you can focus on the important news of the day.  You can also browse industry news feeds that you select in your customized feed view.

In today’s economic environment it is crucial that you’re able to differentiate yourself and be recognized for your expertise.  Within Xuropa you can do this by writing reviews of products and technology you have used or developed.  These are linked to your Professional Profile.  If you don’t have time to write a review you can quickly share your experience by rating products and technology

These is just a short summary of the types of tools available to you within the Xuropa Online Community.

Click here to register for the Xuropa Online Electronic Design Community.

Posted under Features, Xuropa

Ron Ploof writes a very interesting and informative blog about “social” or “new” media and it’s impact on business and industries.  It’s a very useful read.

The title of a recent post caught my eye.  Entitled “Norman Rockwell New Media“, he draws an analogy between new media adoption by corporations and different ways to organize towns.

Ron broke new media adoption into two camps - it’s either central and deeply intertwined with the business (Main Street Town), or it’s on the periphery and barely touches the core business (Norman Rockwell Town).

This doesn’t quite work for the adoption of new media within the electronic design industry however.  There are some industry leaders that have adopted new media wholeheartedly, and are looking to do more.  But on the whole the landscapes of these “towns” appear quite untouched by new media.  But this is changing.

Living in California, a different analogy came to mind.  By and large, it’s kind of like train stations here - if a station exists it’s on the outskirts of town, rarely used, and sadly out of date.  However, these companies have begun to see that the roads are crumbling and gas prices are too volatile to keep using the car cost effectively.  And so they’re looking to put in some new infrastructure and change their behaviors.

Specifically, their business processes are long and require a lot of complex interactions (demonstrations, training, and evaluations for example).  Now that the electronic design industry is truly global it is no longer cost-effective or efficient to carry out all of these interactions in person or even directly.

Many companies use point communication tools (webex, skype, etc.) to lower costs.  But this is not “new media” - ie. these tools cannot be leveraged when they’re not being used.  And this is what we need - leverage.

An online environment that is easy to manage and provides the tools, controls, and recognition mechanisms for engineers to see the value of your product and discuss it with their colleagues and friends.  That’s leverage.  It’s also a pretty neat description of Xuropa.

Click here to register for the Xuropa Online Electronic Design Community

Posted under Features, business, industry, marketing

In response to a cloud computing question I posted to an online forum discussion a concern was raised about security.  Here is the unedited response in full:

“I think cloud computing is extreamly dangerous. There are enough problems with viruses now. IF people were able to exploite holes in componants use din cloud modules or even write systems with back doors in would anyone be sure thyey have a sucure or safe system?”

As I noted in previous posts, security is indeed one of the key drivers of the adoption of cloud computing.  And trust will be a crucial ingredient in the “crossing of the chasm” of this technology and use model.

There is always mistrust of new technologies.  (Did you know that in the very early days of the motor car some scientists believed that passengers would suffocate at speeds over 20 mph?)  Some mistrust is well placed and drives innovative counter measures.  Others will need greater familiarity with the technology and leaders to follow.

To address the first aspect of the posters concern though - viruses and their contagion.

For a virus to be communicated three things need to occur.

1. Placement of the virus at the source.
2. Inadvertent download of the virus by the user.
3. Execution of the virus on the local machine.

There are three parties one could imagine placing the virus within the remote hosted application in the cloud: the cloud computing host company, the vendor of the hosted software, and users of the hosted software.  For a cloud computing company to go to all of the time and expense in developing sophisticated cloud computing platforms such as Xuropa’s Online Labs just to spread a virus is nonsensical.  Like-wise, for the owner of the electronic design software to place a virus within the Online Lab they are using does not make any sense whatsoever.  The last suspect, other users, could have the motive, but they will not have the means.

Consider the use model of a Cloud Computing-based EDA tool in the context of a Xuropa Online Lab as an example.  Every time the remote tool is accessed through a lab session, the environment is provisioned fresh and new from an image that is created by the tool vendor and Xuropa engineers for the Online Lab.  This image is inaccessible to a user.

While the session is active, only users that are explicitly invited into the lab session can have access to the work being carried out by the person who initiated the session.  There is no way for someone to sneak in via a “backdoor”.

If the user was malicious and did upload a virus to the Online Lab they would be very disappointed.  After every lab session has ended all data is erased, all processes on the lab are terminated and a thorough clean of the remote environment is carried out.

The Online Labs hosted on the Xuropa Platform today are even more secure in that they do not provide any upload or download capabilities by design.  No code is executed locally.  This talks to the gradual progression to the cloud of a previous post.  There are great benefits to be gained by leveraging cloud computing without leaping straight into design and development.  Training, demonstrations, workshops, pre-evaluation, and technical support to name just a few.

Which brings me to a follow up observation: mailing of CD’s for evaluation.

Today I opened the EDA Tech Forum magazine and it contained a CD from a nameless EDA vendor.  At the bottom of the CD is written “Every effort has been made to ensure that this disk is virus-free. “XYZ Company” is not responsible for any disruption, damage and/or loss to your data or system that may occur while using this CD.  As with all software we recommend running a virus scanner before use.”

I’m sure that this CD is fine.  The probability of it containing a virus is very, very low.  However, the reason why the lawyers of XYZ Company told their marketing department to include that disclaimer is because of control.  More specifically, it is because of the lack of control.  Once that CD leaves the door of the vendor they don’t know where it could go and through how many hands it will pass.  It is highly unlikely that they burned the CD themselves either.  They will have used a service provider that stamps out CD’s with the label by the hundreds at low cost.  Again, another point of loss of control that keeps the lawyers up at night.

However, with a Xuropa Online Lab you not only have complete control over the environment and who uses it, you also don’t have to go to the wasted expense of sending out hundreds and thousands of CD’s to people that have no interest in the product at all.  (Not a very green approach either.)

So in summary, the cloud is extremely secure.  It is in everybody’s best interest to make it even more secure.  For those malcontents with too much time on their hands life will actually get more limited with a move to the cloud.

You can reduce your overall marketing costs, decrease your “carbon footprint”, and let your lawyers sleep easier by moving to the cloud.

Keep control and keep lawyer fees to a minimum - not a bad thought going into the new year.

Click here to register for the Xuropa Online Electronic Design Community

Posted under Features, Xuropa, business, industry, marketing

In the previous posts in this series we covered some definitions of cloud computing; drivers of the transition to cloud computing by electronic design tools; and a potential roadmap for how this transition could look over time for the EDA tool flow.

In this post we conclude the series with a discussion of different approaches to Cloud Computing.

Remote Access and Cloud Computing Approaches

Cloud Computing could be thought of in different ways, but as with the adoption of most new technologies it will be gradual and in different forms.

Tool Access Models

Beyond the completely locally hosted scenario, there are three basic remote access and SaaS models available today.

VNC (Virtual Network Computing)

This scenario is built upon technology and tools that have been commercially for a few years now. It takes quite a bit of maintenance and support on its own and is not extremely user friendly on its own. However, many electronic design firms are using this for different phases of technology adoption. Engineers also typically use VNC to access tools that are internally hosted.

This is not “Software as a Service”. It an ad hoc technology that provides remote access in a bare knuckle fashion. Software needs to be installed on the server and the client to set up the environment. Connections are set up from the command line and not very user friendly.

EDA SaaS 1.0

As has been productized within a Xuropa Online Lab™, this is an infrastructure that provides systematic, secure remote access to an EDA tool without any installation, setup or teardown by the user. The tool is available on demand and provides for an ideal environment within which to carry out many of the tool adoption phases above.

SaaS and Tool Adoption Process

Also, a Xuropa Online Lab can be extended to provide a design environment allowing the user to upload and download design files. This last model can be adapted to provide SaaS remote access to the EDA tool and would be ideally suited to perform evaluations and even utility of some tools under the right use-model.

For existing EDA tools, this is the shortest, most secure and economical way to place your product in the cloud to provide global access to your market.

The hardware supporting this environment could be a dedicated server or a server farm running virtualization software to maximize resource utility and lower costs. The hardware could be an internal or leased server farm with VMWare or Parallels software. There are other commercial providers of Cloud Computing, the most widely quoted is Amazon with their EC2 (Elastic Compute Cloud).

Above and beyond the Xuropa Online Lab, Xuropa provides services to extend this product to accommodate different use- and business-models. Please inquire for details: sales@xuropa.com.

EDA SaaS 2.0

Using similar hardware configurations as described with SaaS 1.0, this architecture requires the replacement of an existing user interface with a web-based user interface. Alternatively, a new company wishing to broaden the reach of their core tool engine would begin by building a web interface and make it scalable and accessible globally from the start.

There are two early examples of this within electronic design today. Think Silicon provides IPGenius™ as a web service to generate IP cores from different configurations. PDTi™ provides a web-based tool called SpectaReg that is a web enabled collaborative development environment for addressable register interfaces within an SoC. In the past 3 or 4 years this space has become crowded with competing commercial solutions or internally developed frameworks. A SaaS approach is a great way to compete on business model and support model.

[You might want to have a paragraph of the issues/costs of maintaining two versions, one a “regular old” EDA version and a second SaaS version of the tool. And perhaps how Xuropa knows and can offer services to reduce that cost. Just a thought!]

The business model will also migrate from a per-seat time-license model that the user has little control over to a cost-per-“X”, model where “X” can be a number of different parameters. For example, X could be the number of bugs found, the number of cores integrated, the number of regressions run, the length of time the tool was used, the number of designs created, the number of micro-watts saved, etc. ie. the model could be a simpler time/user-based model, but it could also be more tightly tide to the value a particular tool delivers. And the real power of this model is that these metrics can be measured.

Not only can more creative business models be created, but they will make more sense and be more easily and naturally support by both vendor and user.

If there wasn’t such inertia within the existing EDA business models the business model could be a driver that trends gradually towards change, but then experience a significant “tipping point” as a major player changes the rules of the game.

Whether your company is looking to move an existing tool to the web, or is developing a tool for a SaaS model from scratch, it is important that you focus your resources on your core value proposition – your tool’s engine. Xuropa SaaS Design Services is the ideal strategic partner to collaborate with. Leverage our web and EDA expertise and the Xuropa Infrastructure to realize your SaaS vision. Contact us for more information sales@xuropa.com.

Conclusion

We’re at the beginning of a trend, but without a doubt it is a trend. There are 4 key drivers to the development of the use of Cloud Computing and the adoption of SaaS as a business model, and gradually these drivers will align for different products and different companies.

While the drivers do not align for some companies and products just yet, the electronic design industry is primed for a change of this magnitude. Business pressures due to macro-economic “re-adjustments” could be the catalyst for the trend. Also, for those start-up EDA companies that either cannot get funding or are not able to obtain their Series B or C, moving to a SaaS model could be the only way to penetrate accounts, global markets, lower the cost of sales and out maneuver their competition. It might even be a way to get VC’s interested in EDA again…maybe.

SaaS also offers opportunities to semiconductor vendors. It is a way for them to reduce their total cost of ownership and increase their flexibility. Not all of their CAD department is tightly coupled with their value proposition. In much the same way as having a fab no longer became essential to a semiconductor’s success, an internal CAD department could go the same way through SaaS and Cloud Computing.

Finally, there are many benefits to SaaS and a Cloud Computing model for the end user. They always have access to the latest revision of the tool without the pain of installation and transition. They also have an environment that is architected to operate in a distributed and collaborative fashion across specializations and teams. This will remove a lot of the friction and inefficiencies within geographically distributed companies. And the business will be a pay-as-you-use or a results/value-delivery model, which should result in a higher return-on-investmet.

If you’re considering making the move, drop us a line and let’s discuss. sales@xuropa.com or register within the community and send me an email from my Xuropa Professional Profile – Search for James Colgan within the Community area.

Click here to register for the Xuropa Online Electronic Design Community

Posted under Features, Xuropa, business, industry, marketing

Cloud Computing Adoption Roadmap for Electronic Design

In previous posts in this series we covered some basic definitions and the basic drivers to adoption of cloud computing by the electronic design industry.

In this post we discuss a different vector along which to view cloud computing adoption and a potential roadmap of tool type transition.

A Different Vector of Adoption of SaaS Model

There is another vector of transition that is worth exploring. Even if some EDA tools do not lend themselves to moving directly to the cloud, there are phases of the adoption process that are.

Considering the adoption process, there are four main steps: demonstration, training, evaluation, and use.

Technology Adoption Process

Demonstrating a tool via the web is already available using services such as Xuropa’s Online Labs. These integrated environments can also be used for training purposes. But this is only the beginning.

As each phase of the technology adoption process moves to the cloud, a positive psychological and behavioral effect will occur on the subsequent phase. Ie. for some tools, the user will question, “if I can get training for a tool online, why can’t I evaluate your next alpha release online too”. The value proposition will be convenience and time saved. There will be no installation required, less technical support and no conflicts with existing environments when the alpha release is used. Also, as bugs are fixed in the alpha release they are immediately reflected out to the user. This improves their experience and increases their potential of adopting the new revision of the tool when it goes to general release.

Again, the transition is not black and white. Some tools, some users, some situations lend themselves to a move to the cloud. However, as we move forward, each point in the process will undergo a “tipping point” and the transition will occur.

Transition of the Flow

As has been alluded to previously, a fundamental premise for this paper is that the transition will be gradual and it will depend on many components. Not least of which will be the architecture, use-model and implementation of the tool to make the transition.

Below is a much simplified abstraction of the semiconductor and software development flow. Considering the 4 Drivers described previously, it would be easier to note those pieces that would be slower to transition to the cloud.

Electronic Design Tool Flow

Hardware/Software co-design and co-verification has tool and methodology related technical challenges that could slow a transition. But the process of system development and the fact that the two teams holding the disciplines are often separated geographically would lend itself to a remote SaaS model. This could be valuable for at least the early stages of the product development project. It would resolve issues around versioning and facilitate collaboration between the disciplines.

Analog Mixed-Signal could well be a slow mover as simulation runs can take days and present a quality of service challenge. Top-level chip simulation could also be slow in adoption for the same reason.

Synthesis will be slow to move over due to the sheer massive amount of data involved. And test would be a challenge as the actual chip is needed.

However, all other parts of the flow should be possible to transition to SaaS, including emulation and test.

EDA Tool Adoption Curve

In the next post in this series we’ll look at different approaches in the transition to cloud computing and SaaS for electronic design.

Posted under Features, Xuropa, business, industry, marketing