'On the French Riviera, one of the characteristics of the latest twelve months is scattering. The purchase of VLSI by Philips implied the creation or the settlement of very little structures.'
Jacques-Olivier Piednoir, vice-president R&D of Cadence, is SAME's soul. Cadence, the company in which he works in the R&D sector (he is also the manager of the European R&D office settled in Sophia Antipolis (40 people)), manufactures software for chips design. Its clients are Texas Instruments, Philips semi conductor, IBM, Infineon, and others. About 40% of chips are designed thanks to Cadence's tools (5,000 employees in the world).
Jacques-Olivier Piednoir knows very well this sector in expansion on the technopole and near Aix-en-Provence.
-Sophianet.com: In Sophia Antipolis the chips we will find on the market in two or three years are being designed and manufactured here. What are the trends?
-Jacques-Olivier Piednoir:The first microprocessors, in 1975, were made with 20,000 transistors; now the processors on the market have 5 to 10 million transistors. But the manufacturers have invested billions of dollars to mass produce chips with 100 million transistors. It opens new horizons.
The big trend is also to settle the whole system on the chip: the processor, the memory and the program. But before manufacturing that kind of chips, the software allowing to produce it must be developed. We are now facing a paradox, actually, we have the possibility to manufacture chips we still do not know how to design them!
-SN.com: What does it change for users?
-Jacques-Olivier Piednoir:The impact of this boom will be considerable. An example. Today, you have a Palm Pilot, a cellular phone, a digital camera, etc…With these new systems, all the functions will be gathered together in one appliance only. It will do everything.
-SN.com: the microelectronics sector is booming on the French Riviera. What are the characteristics of the expansion?
-Jacques-Olivier Piednoir:Sophia Antipolis deals with chips design, while manufacturing is made near Aix-en-Provence with Atmel, STmicroelectronics and Gemplus. On the French Riviera, one of the characteristics of the latest twelve months is scattering. The purchase of VLSI by Philips implied the creation or the settlement of very little structures. Even if Philips gave more importance to its site in Sophia Antipolis, engineers left in order to create their own start-up or to encourage the implementation of a new firm.
We can quote the arrival of Stepmind, in the field of integrated circuits for wireless telephony. This firm was founded by a brother Jolivet, who had taken a part in the launching of Wave.com, which was qualified by the Americans as one among the 16 best small and middle-sized firms in the world. Stepmind was launched with several former employees of VLSI, among whom John Whittle and Bernard Ginetti. Other examples: the creation of Tachis which manufactures rapid switches, the settlement of Widcomm, which develops software for Bluetooth, the settlement of Centilium, American company of wireless telephony design will open a center with former employees of VSLI.'
-SN.com: What about the problems of development for microelectronics on the French Riviera?
-Jacques-Olivier Piednoir:Two problems. First of all find m² to develop or settle. Then recruit engineer. The sector has opened recruitment plans for nearly 1,000 people between Texas Instruments, Philips semi conductor, IBM, Infineon, and others. But on the spot, ESINSA only has 50 students to propose each year. It would be necessary to recruit externally.'