2025 Outlook with Samia Rashid of Infinisim

Tell us a little bit about yourself and your company. 

I am Samia Rashid, co-founder and president of Infinisim. My background is quite diverse, spanning product management, manufacturing, sales, and mergers and acquisitions. Before founding Infinisim, I was with iManage, Inc., where I played a pivotal role in growing the company from startup to $20 million in sales and taking it public. My responsibilities included sales, marketing strategy, and building partnerships with major Fortune 500 companies. I hold an MS in Engineering from Duke University and an MBA from the University of Chicago.

At Infinisim, we focus on SoC clock verification solutions for high-performance designs. As technology moves into smaller process nodes, where nanometer effects become critical, our tools empower customers to push the boundaries of clock performance—achieving results that static timing-based solutions simply cannot match. With Infinisim, customers can confidently sign off on designs optimized for peak performance and reliability.

What was the most exciting high point of 2024 for your company? 

Interestingly, it wasn’t a specific product launch or customer win. Instead, it was how the challenges of cutting-edge semiconductor designs drove customers to us. In 2024, the growing demand for AI and data-intensive applications underscored the vital role of clock performance in advanced designs. Factors like timing jitter and reliability aging posed significant challenges, and Infinisim’s solutions emerged as essential for addressing them.

One standout moment involved a high-profile issue from a major semiconductor company. A clock tree circuit within their IA core, particularly vulnerable to aging under high voltage and temperature, became a critical pain point for the industry. This is exactly the type of problem Infinisim is built to solve. It not only demonstrated the importance of our solutions but also significantly increased interest in our company and its capabilities.

What was the biggest challenge your company faced in 2024? 

Remarkably, our most exciting high point also highlighted our biggest challenge. The clock tree aging issue revealed why advanced designs require a shift in design methodologies. However, not all companies are ready to adapt.

Many teams continue to rely on large design margins to manage uncertainties, assuming this approach ensures reliability—until unforeseen problems arise. Unfortunately, these oversized margins leave untapped performance on the table, increase design size, and drive up costs at advanced nodes, ultimately affecting both profitability and competitiveness.

Our biggest challenge has been encouraging companies to rethink these traditional methods. While design margins have long been considered a safety net, they are no longer sustainable at advanced technologies. Addressing this requires not just innovative tools but also a shift in mindset, driven by education and collaboration with the industry.

How is your company’s work addressing this biggest challenge? 

Our approach focuses on both cutting-edge technology and customer education. Infinisim provides industry-leading tools for analyzing and optimizing critical timing challenges like jitter and aging, offering unprecedented accuracy and insight. These solutions enable design teams to reduce excessive margins while maintaining reliability, unlocking better performance and profitability.

Equally important is helping the industry shift its mindset. We actively engage with customers to demonstrate how adopting more precise design methodologies can lead to more competitive outcomes. By bridging the gap between traditional practices and advanced solutions, we empower companies to stay ahead in an increasingly complex market.

What do you think the biggest growth area for 2025 will be, and why?

The biggest growth area for 2025 will be driven by the rapid expansion of AI and other data-intensive applications, which demand unprecedented performance and efficiency from semiconductor designs. The size and complexity of these systems will continue to grow, with the trend toward multi-die design accelerating this evolution.

As technology advances into smaller process nodes, managing clock performance, jitter, and aging will become more critical than ever. Jitter combined with aging will emerge as a key area of analysis, directly impacting the performance and reliability of advanced designs.

This presents a significant opportunity for Infinisim to help the industry address these challenges. By enabling customers to optimize performance, reduce excessive design margins, and deliver more competitive products, we are poised to play a pivotal role in shaping the next phase of semiconductor innovation.

How is your company’s work addressing this growth? 

Infinisim is already at the forefront of these advancements. We provide de facto solutions for comprehensively analyzing and optimizing aging and jitter—two of the most pressing challenges at smaller process nodes. Our tools deliver unmatched accuracy and efficiency, helping customers confidently address these complex demands.

We’re also leading the way in deploying jitter-with-aging solutions at leading-edge companies. By ensuring our technology evolves in line with cutting-edge applications, we enable our customers to create high-performance, reliable, and competitive designs.

How do customers engage with your company?

We invite you to connect with us at the conferences we’ll be attending in 2025— details are available on our website. These events are an excellent opportunity to discuss industry trends and explore how our solutions can address your challenges.

You can also reach out directly through our website to start a conversation. We’re always excited to collaborate and help customers unlock the full potential of their designs while driving greater profitability.

Additional questions or final comments? 

I encourage all design teams working at advanced nodes to critically evaluate their design margins. While these margins were traditionally expanded to manage unpredictable effects, Infinisim’s tools now make it possible to accurately analyze and address these challenges. By embracing innovative solutions, teams can optimize their designs, reduce waste, and build more competitive, profitable products. We’re excited to continue partnering with companies to achieve these goals and shape the future of semiconductor innovation.

About Infinisim

Infinisim, Inc is a privately funded EDA company providing design verification solutions. Founded by industry luminaries, the Infinisim team has over 50 years of combined expertise in the area of design and verification.

Infinisim customers are leading edge semiconductor companies and foundries that are designing high-performance mobile, AI, CPU and GPU chips.  

Infinisim has helped customers achieve unprecedented levels of confidence in design robustness prior to tape-out. Customers have been able to eliminate silicon re-spins, reduce chip design schedules by weeks and dramatically improve product quality and production yield.

Also Read:

My Conversation with Infinisim – Why Good Enough Isn’t Enough

The Perils of Aging, From a Semiconductor Device Perspective

A Closer Look at Conquering Clock Jitter with Infinisim