Silicon Chip Verification Outside of Intel Corp.

A large number of our members have been involved in silicon chip verification at Intel Corporation, before they were laid-off. It is quite clear now that Corp. management, with their lack of vision regarding how the expand the market for the company products, decided to take the risk and cut down on product electrical and functional verification. However, the chart below demonstrates that as the move to denser silicon chips is expected to take place over the next decade and beyond, the functional complexity of the product, as well as the software needed to support the end-user functionality of the chip are expected to grow exponentially.

The demand for verifying the IP design, as well as verifying the electrical and functional behavior of the silicon implementation are also expected to grow exponentially, due to the same complexity factors.

From my point of view I can see a lot of opportunity for new startup companies to take over the execution aspects of new silicon chips verification (particularly electrical and functional verification) therefor freeing the large silicon vendors to focus on their main lines of business.

This situation could even be accelerated as more "fab-less" companies produce IP with smaller on-board staff. Smaller, agile and independent companies can execute the verification job a lot more efficiently than the top heavy department of a large company, which are constantly mired in internal politics, as well as conflicting directions. I predict that Intel Corp., as well as other companies will begin outsourcing their product verification projects to outside vendors who specialize in this field. Perhaps there are opportunities for some of us if we prepare for the future, open our horizons and pursue the opportunities that the market presents to us.

I suggest to watch the following video, demonstrating that silicon verification jobs are sorely needed in the silicon industry and unlike at Intel Corp. smaller scale projects are plentiful.

http://videos.mentor-cdn.com/videos/2500/u2u-2016-andrew-talan-ams.mp4?cmpid=10169

As usual, please submit your response through the comment link below the article.

--Dr. Flywheel