The Importance of Front End Standards

It was recently announced that Shishpal Rawat has been elected Chair of Accellera, a key “Front End” (i.e., RTL and above) EDA Standards organization.  This by itself is a fine development, since I have absolutely no doubt that Accellera will prosper under Shishpal’s leadership.  However, it is also a continuation of a trend.  The Chair of OSCI, another very important Front End EDA Standards organization, is Eric Lish, also of Intel.   Looking further, the “Configuration, Control & Inspection” (“CCI”) Working Group, one of OSCI’s hottest technical groups, is chaired by Trevor Wieman of Intel.  Finally, swinging back to Accellera, the Verification IP Technical Subcommittee (VIP TSC), which is developing the (much in the news) UVM, is co-chaired by Tom Alsop of (surprise!) Intel.

What to make of this?  I can make no claim to speak for Intel, but one of my observations over the years has been that it is a very well run company, and things rarely happen there by happenstance.  Thus, I take the fact that Intel management has agreed to not only have some of its talented employees participate in, but to actually lead key Front End Standards activities is an excellent indicator of the continuing importance of such Standards.