Lean and Green

It would be easy to look at the state of the world and be down in the dumps, but old-timers like me have seen it before.  Graphs don’t always go up and to the right; we live instead with business cycles. 

I think we are approaching an evolutionary inflection point where things start to change very rapidly, and this time we’re going for a “lean and green” electronics industry.  Futurists are predicting the complete demise of the desktop within the next 10-20 years, when all computing/communications/entertainment will be unplugged and untethered.

But portable electronics is just a tiny fraction of this green future.  New opportunities await in batteries, solar power, motors, transportation, and simple conservation.  Trimming small amounts of power through more efficient design can have a large impact.  For instance, the massive server farms behind the Internet can spend as much on air conditioning as they do to run the servers.  And in power-hungry China, gamers alone eat up 1.5GW daily – equal to the output of three coal-fired power plants.  Achieving a 20 percent silicon power reduction – something entirely feasible using today’s design methods – can save billions of dollars while cutting harmful pollutants.

The “lean” part of this equation comes in when you accept the fact that everyone is going to have to do more with less in the future.  Small teams can develop breakthrough technologies better than top-heavy bureaucracies, and can partner with complementary groups in industry or academia to speed their progress. 

I believe we will look back on these times in a few short years and recognize opportunities often come disguised as problems.

I like to think we’re ahead on the “lean and green curve” since we’ve been an acknowledged industry leader in low-power design since the company’s founding.  In the next 10 years, I see us becoming just as important in low-power management, putting our experience to work to further green initiatives around the world.  In the near term, look for us to expand our offerings with partners in ESL design as we continue to innovate in the RTL space.

Looking back, 2008 was a remarkable year of highlights for Sequence.  To summarize just a few that I am particularly proud of:

• PowerArtist – the most comprehensive automated RTL power-reduction tool capable of slashing power  in just minutes launched at DAC, generating tremendous interest and unprecedented sales activity – named one of EDN Magazine’s “Hot 100 Products” for 2008
• Signed 100th PowerTheater customer
• Continued adoption of the Sequence DFP (Design For Power) solution from RTL to gate worldwide, fueled by increased demand from all application segments, including mobile, graphics, SoCs, networking, and consumer products
• Sequence secured a seat on the Si2 Board of Directors – an important standards-setting body we look forward to working with
• Our PowerTheater and CoolTime tools are now part of the STARC advanced design flow – the Japanese consortium devising optimized tool flows for advanced process technologies
  

May 2009 bring you success, good health, prosperity, and green power!


Sincerely,