2024 Outlook with Toshio Nakama of S2C

Tell us a little bit about yourself and your company.
I am Toshio Nakama, the founder and CEO of S2C and a strong advocate of FPGA accelerated ASIC/SoC design methodology. I first started my career at Altera as an FAE and served in technical and sales management roles at Aptix Corporation. I co-founded S2C in Silicon Valley in 2003 and established R&D and manufacturing teams in Shanghai, China in 2004.

S2C is a leading global supplier of digital EDA solutions for today’s innovative SoC and ASIC designs, now with the second largest share of the global prototyping market. S2C has been successfully delivering rapid SoC prototyping solutions for 20 years.

With over 600 customers, including 6 of the world’s top 10 semiconductor companies, our world-class engineering team and customer-centric sales team are experts at addressing our customer’s SoC and ASIC verification needs. S2C has offices and sales representatives in the US, Europe, mainland China, Hong Kong, Korea and Japan.

What was the most exciting high point of 2023 for your company?
Our 20th Anniversary! An exciting time for the company. Also, new products coming including OminiArk emulation, PegaSim simulation, and Claryti debugger

What was the biggest challenge your company faced in 2023?
New applications  and new technologies are coming quickly. In terms of new applications, the industry is experiencing growth in various areas, including market expansion and the emergence of technologies like RISC-V, Chiplet, and AI. New technology trends, including fresh architectures, evolving standards, changing requirements, and innovative ideas, continue to push the industry ahead.

How is your company’s work addressing this biggest challenge?
Delivering solutions tailored to meet customer demands for new technologies and applications. Collaborating with environmentally conscious partners to create a mutually beneficial ecosystem.

What do you think the biggest growth area for 2024 will be, and why?
New applications and technologies will be the primary growth area in 2024. Chiplets and AI specifically and newly developed IP such as RISC-V and the many variations. We are also seeing growth in the ARM ecosystem. With software being a barrier for systems companies prototyping is even more important so software can be developed in concert with hardware. 2024 will definitely be a growth year.

How is your company’s work addressing this growth?
The recently introduced S2C Precision Chip Strategy:

Heterogeneous verification method accelerates large-scale digital circuit, boosting user productivity. By seamlessly combining various products line, S2C empowers designers to tackle complex challenges more efficiently, ultimately leading to more robust and optimized designs cyclical.

Parallel Drive & Shift-left Method. S2C assists our valued customers in two crucial aspects of their projects: designing the right chip and designing the chip right.

What conferences did you attend in 2023 and how was the traffic?
We were very active in conferences around the world. DAC and DVCon are a long tradition with our company. We are also participating in RISC-V conferences and other regional events. In 2024 we expect even more conference activity around the world with much higher attendance. It should be a very big growth year for S2C and the semiconductor industry.

Final Comment?
Thank you very much for this opportunity. SemiWiki  is a valued partner we look forward to seeing you again at DVCon Next month.

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