Schwartz on Free Software - Applicable to Hardware Verification?
December 02, 2005
A few weeks ago I wrote about how it would be interesting if companies open-sourced their verification infrastructure. I've also previously mentioned that Sun was giving away much of their Java development software for free. Jonathan Schwartz, Sun's President and Chief Operating Officer, posted a defense of their efforts to give away their software for free on his blog. The question I have is if his strategy would work with verification tools in the case where the software will only be used by developers (as Jonathan states that people like developers are unlikely to pay for tools but instead will try to get them for free).
It seems to me a more appropriate business model to use with hardware verification would be to offer consulting services around verification infrastructure and IP while providing the software itself for free. That way, people could use as many licenses as they want for tools, bus functional models, etc. and only pay if they needed some level of support (which most large companies presumably prefer).
What do you think? Would you and/or your company be interested in contributing to a verification ecosystem where revenue was driven through consulting services instead of per simulation licensing costs, or do you prefer the current licensing model popular with Synopsys, Mentor, and Cadence?