Following my article on the decision by Cadence to leave the DFM market segment, I received an email from a Cadence employee that has asked to be anonymous because "I'm sharing confidential internal information here." He disputes the conclusion Gary Smith, other editors, analysts, and myself, arrived to based on the contents of the Cadence press release of June 10th.

This Cadence employee maintains that Cadence is not abandoning DFM, just making a few changes. The relevant portion of his email reads as follows.

" you're just spreading wrong information which is based on misinterpreted press release. I don't know why our marketing does not make a press release to set things right, therefore I would like to send you an internal mail, which shows the true status of DFM inside Cadence.

In the announcement June 10th that Cadence issued regarding restructuring:
Yahoo Finance.
There was a paragraph that stated:

"The Company expects to eliminate approximately 225 full-time positions, representing 5% of its global employee base. The reductions come primarily from resizing the worldwide field organization to current business levels, decreasing the level of investment in the manufacturing side of DFM (Design-for-Manufacturability) and other infrastructure areas of the business."
This seems to have raised some questions both with our own field team, as well as with customers about where we stand on DFM.

What is New?
This statement about decreasing our level of investment in DFM is only in reference to certain post-layout Optical Proximity Correction (OPC) tools and Mask Process Correction (MPC) tools.
This does not refer to Litho Physical Analyzer (LPA), Litho Electrical Analyzer (LEA), Cadence CMP Predictor (CCP), or Cadence Pattern Analyzer (CPA), which are not only alive and well, but thriving, and a continued area of investment for us. We will continue to aggressively develop and promote our industry leading DFM solutions along these lines.
Our DFM development are focused in two primary areas; 1) standalone tools (for use in 3rd party flows) 2) deeper integration into our digital implementation (Encounter) and full custom (Virtuoso) implementation platforms. For example, in EDI System 9.1, there will now be a pull down menu with flexibility to call LPA or CCP automatically. This enables designers to easily run the DFM analysis and then automatically fix any issues.
The combination of our leading DFM technology with our implementation platforms enables us to address and overcome the manufacturability and variability concerns at advanced nodes from the very start of the design flow.
Key points to keep in mind:

• Cadence DFM tools (as above) are used at 12 of the top-20 semiconductor vendors in the world
• With LEA, Cadence is the only vendor who addresses the impact of lithography on the electrical variability of a design (aka electrical DFM)

What customers should care and why?
Foundries have started mandating litho and CMP checks for 45nm and below. This means customers doing physical design (both custom and digital implementation) must make litho and CMP checks part of their design flow now. As a result, this has become a hot topic for customers lately, and it is expected to increase in importance moving forward. Cadence has the number 1 line-up of litho and CMP solutions in the market, and we are in the best position of all to gain from these new foundry mandates."

The emphases in the above text are of the original author.
The email ends with some advice as to what I should do to help the writer promote Cadence's tools and Cadence's lead in the post-layout market segment. I will gladly leave this task to the professionals in Cadence's marketing department, who get paid much more than I do for doing it. I would also like to commend this unnamed person for his pride in his company and the products he works on, as well as the courage he has shown. I am eagerly awaiting words from Alberto Sangiovanni Vincentelli (you can write to me in Italian if it is easier Alberto!) or anyone at Cadence who can speak for the company and thus not have to mask his, or her, identity to set the record straight (if necessary).