Open-minded” France attracting EDA companies

8/29/2007 – Electronic Business

Commentary: “Open-minded” France attracting EDA companies
A new president, a jolt of R&D incentives courtesy of the French government, and an infusion of new startups are boosting the EDA industry in the country.
By Luc Burgun, EVE — Electronic Business, 8/29/2007

The environment for investing in France is getting significantly better and should have a positive impact on the French EDA industry.

Last year, foreign companies—mostly US-based—invested more in France than in any other country in Europe, including the United Kingdom.

Why? The French government recently introduced R&D investment incentives via a modified fiscal tool—CIR (Credit Impôt Recherche or French Research Tax Credit)—and the new JEI (Jeunes Enterprises Innovantes or Young Innovative Companies) program.

The CIR is one of the best means to reduce R&D expenses, especially when companies are expanding their R&D teams. Through the CIR, 45% of the incremental R&D expenses and 5% of the basic R&D expenses can be deducted from the annual taxes. Further, through the CIR, an unprofitable startup can recover losses at the end of a fiscal year, reimbursed by the government.

The JEI, meanwhile, allows innovative companies to be exempt from tax and social contributions for the first eight years of a company’s life.

CIR and JEI have been key to propelling France to the forefront of European innovation. More important, their advantages are available even after a company goes through an IPO or gets acquired.

New president, new views on corporations

Even though the Euro is quite strong against the dollar today, R&D salaries are still 40% lower in France than in the United States. This is especially true in the EDA industry, and even more so in the electronics and computer-science industries.

France enjoys a large pool of well-educated and creative engineers with a strong focus on hardware/software integration, a critical aspect to the usability of consumer electronics. The productivity of French engineers is strong in comparison with other countries as well. It should be noted that the 35-hour work weeks only apply to blue collar jobs. And France, followed closely by Ireland, is the leading country in Europe in terms of birth rate for more than a decade, with 1.9 newborns per family, giving it a promising future.

Lately, France has shown a desire to change its old structures and enter into the XXI century with an open mind. The French recently elected Nicolas Sarkozy, a “hyper-energetic” president who intends to implement sweeping reforms as soon as possible. He received a mandate by the majority of the French people to execute this aggressive plan. One of his biggest challenges will be to give more flexibility to companies so that they can hire more employees without being concerned with their future during recessionary periods.

The changing face of EDA in France

How does this affect the EDA industry in France? Let’s look at the history of EDA in Europe to understand the possible impact of this new environment.

Until the beginning of the 1990s, large chip makers such as Bull and STMicroelectronics developed their own internal EDA tools. This has changed over the past 10 years as companies have decreased the size of their EDA teams to focus on strategic tools to support and expand their businesses.

In the mid-1990s, Anacad and Meta-Systems conceived and developed advanced technologies and were acquired by Mentor Graphics. The same happened to IST, acquired by Xilinx, and Telcom WorkBench and Leda, acquired by Synopsys. A large portion of the Compass EDA team merged within Cadence. Back then, the growth of French EDA startups was hindered by a chronic lack of funding essential to promote and sell their tools outside of Europe.

At the beginning of the XXI century, TNI-Valiosys, Esterel and, more recently, EVE and Arteris—all French EDA companies—were the first funded by investors. At the same time, outside of France but in Europe, several EDA companies specialized in hardware-assisted tools sprung up, such as Hardi, recently acquired by Synplicity, Prodesign and Nallatech. All these companies share an aggressive plan to sell and promote their tools outside of Europe.

The first customers of EVE in 2002 were Texas Instruments in France, Canon CISRA in Autralia and Fujtsu Lab in Japan. Today, EVE has more employees outside of France than at its headquarters in Palaiseau.

More recently, several new startups, including Certess and Cofluent, caught the attention of the venture capital community through solid business plans and promising futures. It should be noted that Certess moved its headquarters to the U.S., as did Arteris, making them U.S. companies with R&D teams in France.

Revenues generated by independent French EDA companies in 2006 are estimated at $40 million, with the same amount coming from those already part of larger EDA groups in France. This is still quite small in comparison to the $4 billion EDA industry, but given the favorable environment for investing in France these days, this amount should grow significantly soon.

It is likely that one French EDA company will be able to apply for an IPO soon, whether at AIM in London, EuroNext in Paris or even at NASDAQ in New York, motivating investors to pour more cash into the EDA space. The experience accumulated by these and other companies will foster new initiatives. Ultimately, the path to success for the French EDA startups will be through a collection of customer success stories.
Luc Burgun is president and CEO of EVE, a provider of hardware-assisted verification solutions, and president of CoFluent Design, which provides integrated solutions to bridge the gap between the specification of an electronic system and its implementation.

Breaking the Silicon Barrier: Graphene Transistors Demonstrated

The largest hurdle in semiconductor miniaturization has just been shattered

Using the world’s thinnest material, Graphene, researchers at the University of Manchester have created the world’s smallest transistor. According to Professor Andre Geim and Dr. Kostya Novoselov from The School of Physics and Astronomy at The University of Manchester, the new transistors are only one atom thick and less than 50 atoms wide. The development opens the gate to superfast computer chips at sizes not possible before with standard Silicon transistors.

According to the semiconductor industry roadmap, miniaturization of electronics will face its largest challenge in the next twenty years. This is because Silicon based technology will begin to reach its minimum size limit.

Graphene, a form of carbon that is only one atom thick, may provide a solid alternative for even further miniaturization of electronics as silicon-based technology reaches its limit.

Graphene transistors were originally created two years ago, but at that time they were very “leaky” meaning current could not be turned off to zero. The “leaky” quality of the transistors effectively limited their uses, and rendered them useless for employment in computer chips and electronic circuits. But over the course of the past two years the research team at the University of Manchester was able to overcome this problem, and have created fully-functional and stable Graphene transistors.

Graphene transistors remain stable and conductive even when they are only a few nanometers wide. This is in contrast to all other known materials, including the dominant silicon transistors, which “oxidize, decompose and become unstable at sizes ten times larger.” This is the barrier that current silicon-based technology is approaching and is likely to also be its downfall.

“We have made ribbons only a few nanometers wide and cannot rule out the possibility of confining graphene even further – down to maybe a single ring of carbon atoms,” says Professor Geim of the University of Manchester.

Graphene provides a solid alternative to Silicon and according to Geim can lead to even further reductions in size. Geim expects future electronic circuits to possibly be carved out of a single Graphenesheet.

Dr Leonid Ponomarenko, who is leading this research at The University of Manchester, is optimistic of the technologies’ future.

“The next logical step is true nanometer-sized circuits and this is where graphene can come into play because it remains stable – unlike silicon or other materials – even at these dimensions.”

Geim believes that Graphene is the only viable successor to Silicon after the currently dominant technology reaches its limit.  Graphene-based circuits, however, are not likely to be completely ready until 2025.

The European Union bets on fundamental research

The European Council of research will distribute 7,5 billion euros over six years.

 

The world BATTLE of research will pass through the European Council of research (ERC). Envisaged within the framework of the seventh outline programme, this structure must finance pioneers projects in all the fields of fundamental research. One finds a little the same logic which governs the operation of the national Agency of research (ANR), launched here two years to France, but with exclusively of the projects known as “white” (without preset set of themes).

 

“Great scientific discoveries intervened thanks to space and to time that one gave to the great ideas to open out. It is what we want to concretize with the ERC”, launched the European police chief to Research Janez Potocnik. The only criterion of selection will be “excellence”.

 

The word was on all the lips, at the time of the conference of launching of the institution in Berlin, inaugurated Tuesday by the German chancelière Angela Merkel.

 

Difficult not to perceive, among the 250 directors of national institutes of research taking part in the event, the hopes generated by such an initiative.

 

“This type of financing is very awaited by the researchers”, confirms Michel Cosnard, chairman of Inria.

 

Equipped with 7,5 billion euros 2007 to 2013, the ERC will distribute two types of financings. As of this year, 200 purses d’1,5 million euros each one will be granted to young researchers, doctors since less than nine years. Since 2008, from 200 to 500 allowances of 2,5 million euros will be distributed to other researchers, unbounded of age.

 

To make return brains

 

“That will support mobility”, is pleased Angelos Michaelides, enquiring young person of London Centre for Nanotechnology. Indeed, as there is not restriction of nationality, any foreign researcher deciding to come to work in Europe can profit from it. “What to attract brains, to even make return from the French”, notes Alain Peyraube, director of research CNRS in the linguistic Research center on Eastern Asia (EHESS) and one of the two French members of the scientific council of the ERC. The installation of the ERC did not proceed without debates. A brawl opposed the European Commission to several Member States, of which France, Portugal or Sweden, which wished its autonomy.

 

Finally, Brussels obtained profit of cause, the ERC will have the statute of executive agency. Its scientific council of twenty-two members will be chaired by Fotis Kafatos, of the Imperial College of London.

 

Last debate: 20% of the financings granted to each project will be allotted to the institution which lodges it, to cover the expenses in particular equipment. “The British would have wished more, because in the United States that accounts for 40 to 60 % of the budgets”, testifies Mathias Dewatripont, professor d’ Économie in the Université libre de Bruxelles.

 

“The hope is that that drains the best projects, but the limited chances of success (approximately 1 %) are likely to discourage”, fears finally Enno Aufderheide, director of the policy of research of the Institute max Planck, the German equivalent of CNRS. The more so as “no one will not be authorized to cumulate financings ANR and ERC”, underlines the director general of CNRS Arnold Migus. “Some could prefer safety, with the ANR”, fears on its side Alain Peyraube.