The application of artificial intelligence (AI) has emerged as a driving force behind global technological innovation. As AI adoption proliferates, the mastery of semiconductor chip technology becomes paramount for success. The escalating complexity and design costs of chips are fueling the rapid evolution of electronic design automation (EDA) and upstream chip design solutions. Altair, a global leader in computational intelligence, has rapidly established a foothold in EDA and multi-physics simulation tools for electronic systems and the semiconductor industry.
In an exclusive interview, Sarmad Khemmoro, senior vice president of Technical Strategy for electronic design and simulation at Altair, highlighted the company's strategic acquisitions to bolster its EDA and multi-physics simulation offerings. Leveraging its Detroit, Michigan roots in the automotive hub, Altair has cultivated 40 years of experience serving major automotive manufacturers with its mechanical systems functional verification and simulation software. Its core clientele spans automotive, aerospace, industrial systems, and consumer electronics. The surge in AI and advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS) within the smart vehicle sector has propelled Altair's expertise in system-level functional simulation.
As electronic designs, including electronic control units (ECUs) and ADAS, increasingly permeate automotive systems, Altair has expanded into electronic system functional verification and automotive printed circuit board (PCB) validation. Emphasizing design for manufacturability (DFM) verification, Altair's solutions encompass simulation and validation across logical, physical, thermal, electrical, and mechanical domains.
Altair's EDA Strategy Targets System-Level Functional Verification and Simulation
Khemmoro observes that AI is central to the current technological transformation. With a widening talent gap and the rise of intricate and diverse designs, traditional simulation tools often require days to yield results, incurring substantial costs. AI-driven automation is therefore crucial to enhance analysis and simulation efficiency, making AI integration a highly competitive field in EDA.
About a decade ago, Altair embarked on expanding its EDA and simulation portfolio. Unlike the established EDA giants, Altair focuses on niche products, particularly system-level EDA verification and simulation tools. A key offering is Altair® PollEx™, a comprehensive suite for PCB design review, analysis, and verification, catering to electrical, electronic, and manufacturing engineers. PollEx PCB Verification detects manufacturing, assembly, and electrical defects early in the design phase, reducing costs and accelerating development cycles.
PollEx is an open solution that supports various ECAD, EDA, and CAE file formats, facilitating collaboration among PCB design experts. It enables improved board layout, signal integrity, power integrity, and electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) verification, and seamlessly integrates with multi-physics simulation environments.
Multi-Physics Simulation: A Cornerstone for 3D IC Advanced Packaging and PCB Design
Altair's multi-physics simulation solutions, evolving from structural simulation tools, address critical design challenges. Altair® SimLab®, a process-oriented multi-disciplinary analysis platform, automates structural stress, vibration, and drop test performance, delivering accurate and consistent results.
The rise of 3D IC design has increased demand for multi-physics simulation and verification of large 3D packaged chips and PCBs. Khemmoro notes the importance of simulating thermal stress at the chip-package level and fluid, thermal effects, fatigue, warpage stress, and EMC at the PCB and system level. These simulations are vital for large electronics systems in automotive, medical, military, and industrial applications, where long lifecycles, harsh environments, and complex supply chains are standard.
Altair's AI Studio solution facilitates AI predictive modeling for engineering design, further enhancing PCB design agility.
DSim: Cost-Effective ASIC and FPGA Design Simulation and Debugging
Altair's acquisition of Metrics Design Automation and its DSim™ solution expanded its EDA capabilities. DSim leverages cloud-native environments and integrates with major cloud providers (Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure, AWS) to reduce computational costs. Optimized for speed, capacity, and accuracy, DSim, combined with Altair's Silicon Debug Tools®, offers robust functional verification, simulation, and debugging on desktops, servers, or in the cloud, supporting large regression tests.
This pay-as-you-go model provides a cost-effective alternative to the expensive IC design verification market. DSim supports ASIC and FPGA digital circuit simulation using System Verilog and VHDL RTL, employing parallel processing for accelerated testing.
Altair's strong automotive client base, coupled with its experience serving EMS providers and consumer electronics manufacturers, underscores its industry leadership. As a TSMC Open Innovation Platform (OIP) partner, Altair aims to empower Taiwan's semiconductor and IC design sectors in the AI era.
Altair will host its biennial Altair Technology Conference Taiwan in Taipei on May 28, 2025, featuring insights from Altair's CTO, chief engineers, and industry leaders. The conference will explore CAE, AI, and HPC advancements. For details, visit: https://events.altair.com/atc-taiwan-2025/.
Altair Technology Conference Taiwan 2025. Credit: Altair
Article edited by Jack Wu
