Veridae Systems Enters EDA Market

Veridae Systems Inc. has entered the electronic design automation (EDA) market poised to deliver a breakthrough technology for post-silicon debug and validation. The technology, spun out from research activity at the University of British Columbia (UBC), will provide engineers with unprecedented visibility into the internal operation of complex integrated circuits (ICs), enabling products to go from prototype to production with substantial savings in both cost and time to market.

“Veridae is very excited to make our formal entry into the EDA market,” said Jim Derbyshire, CEO of Veridae Systems. “We have developed a disruptive technology that fills a significant gap in available EDA tools. Customer evaluations have demonstrated the ability of our technology to substantially reduce the time required to get complex ICs to production, and engineers are keen to realize this tremendous advantage in capturing market opportunities.”

Veridae’s debug technology addresses one of the biggest trends in the semiconductor industry: the rising complexity of ICs. In line with Moore’s Law, ICs are becoming both more complex and are operating at faster speeds – a combination that has pushed the limits of conventional debug solutions. In fact, up to 50 percent of the overall development time of complex ICs is now consumed between the arrival of initial prototypes and the final production release. Delays due to debug can cost manufacturers millions of dollars in development costs and missed market opportunities.

Veridae solves this challenge with a novel combination of hardware IP and software algorithms that provide simulation-style visibility into an IC at all stages of development, allowing engineers to quickly pinpoint and understand unexpected behaviors, correct problems, and rapidly move devices into production. Debug problems that previously required weeks, or even months, can be resolved in hours.

"It's great to see a new company in the silicon debug space. It's a vital technology and we can use all the help we can get," said Gary Smith, founder and chief analyst of Gary Smith EDA.

The company’s approach leverages on-chip debug research by Dr. Brad Quinton at UBC. Dr. Quinton, now the chief technology officer of Veridae Systems, is joined by a team of industry experts in complex IC development, validation and debug.

“We are pleased to see the UBC facilitated research spun into such a remarkable technology,” said Dr. Andre Ivanov, professor and head of the electrical and computer engineering department at UBC. “Part of UBC’s mission is both to fuel innovation and to help our graduates commercialize their research, and we are excited to watch as the solution provided by Dr. Quinton and his team generates widespread industry interest.”

The company’s management team is led by Jim Derbyshire, CEO and Chairman of the Board, formerly CEO of SiGe Semiconductor and Symbionics. Derbyshire is serial entrepreneur and angel investor, having co-founded or been actively involved with over ten starts ups throughout his career. Also on the management team are Brad Quinton serving as Chief Technology Officer; Greg Wynans, Vice President of Marketing and Sales; Daniel Hoggar, Vice President of Applications; and Andrew Hughes, Vice President of Engineering.

Veridae also recently appointed Dr. Resve Saleh, former founder and Chairman of EDA company Simplex Solutions and former advisor to ADA and Sabio Labs, to the board of directors.

The company is also aided by advisors including Dr. Steve Wilton, a professor at UBC and leading expert on FPGA technology who is currently on sabbatical working at Veridae; Doug Konkin, President of Centus Inc., former founder of HyperCore Technologies; and Dr. Daryl D. Harms, an independent software consultant and author of The Quick Python Book.

Veridae Systems