Jim Cantele, global SVP of sales and technology at Altair, is an electronics industry veteran with deep knowledge of EDA software and services. Before joining Altair during the acquisition of Runtime Design Automation in 2017, Jim held executive-level management positions at a number of leading EDA and semiconductor companies, including Cadence, Siemens (Mentor Graphics), Samsung Semiconductor, and Microchip (Supertex). We worked with Runtime Automation before the acquisition and have known Jim for many years.
Tell us a little bit about yourself and your company.
Altair is a global leader in computational intelligence that provides software and cloud solutions in simulation, high-performance computing (HPC), data analytics, and AI. Altair enables organizations across all industries to compete more effectively and drive smarter decisions in an increasingly connected world — all while creating a greener, more sustainable future.
As global SVP of sales and technology at Altair, I’ve been fortunate to be at the center of many exciting innovations across the company, acquisitions of complementary technologies that have broadened our solutions portfolio, and partnerships with future-facing organizations to collaborate on today’s accelerated-growth areas including AI and quantum computing. After spending time at large enterprises including Cadence and Mentor Graphics, as well as startups such as One Spin Solutions, Celestry, and Runtime Design Automation — which was acquired by Altair in 2017 — I can appreciate that Altair offers the best of both worlds: It’s not only a solid, established company but also an agile organization that encourages diversity, creativity, and innovative thinking.
What was the most exciting high point of 2023 for your company?
It’s hard to pick just one! Last year was packed with new solutions. We announced Liquid Scheduling to scale distributed computing with our Altair® PBS Professional® workload manager, as well as Altair® InsightPro™ for streamlined HPC and cloud reporting. For the EDA space we introduced an integrated solution built with our Altair® Accelerator™ scheduler combined with Altair® NavOps® for dynamic cloud scaling, and we also created a dashboard that combines Accelerator with our data analytics solutions. Nothing is as exciting as launching an innovation that will move computing forward and make it easier for users to design, engineer, and make new discoveries.
What was the biggest challenge your company faced in 2023?
Many of our recent challenges have focused on convergence. The lines between on-premises vs. cloud, HPC vs. high-throughput computing, and similar traditionally divergent technologies are blurring, and every tech company needs to deliver solutions that incorporate many different elements that, in today’s world, commonly include machine learning (ML), deep learning (DL), and AI. Many of our customers’ product integrations require combinations of data analytics, simulation, and HPC technologies to be successful, and they all have different challenges on top of various resource and budget constraints. Our challenge at Altair is to pull all the right technologies together and deliver them in an effective, easy-to-use package.
How is your company’s work addressing this biggest challenge?
We’re developing and delivering advanced AI-driven solutions that leverage, among other technologies, our Altair® RapidMiner® data analytics and AI platform. RapidMiner enables users to extract and transform their data, build data and machine learning workflows, and process and display real-time data. We’ve found that RapidMiner is very useful in combination with other Altair solutions, and work is ongoing to fuse synergistic technologies like these to benefit users on a whole new level. Work is ongoing and we’ll unveil additional solutions with new and combined capabilities in 2024.
What do you think the biggest growth area for 2024 will be, and why?
We have three focus areas: data analytics, simulation, and HPC, each with different major growth areas. For semiconductor companies, we’re seeing an increase in demand for HPC job requirements at runtime, both on-premises and in the cloud. They need advanced information on workflow, memory, core count, and license requirements. We’re also focused on both the immediate uses for and the future potential of AI, which is becoming increasingly pervasive in today’s world. Quantum computing is still new and flawed, with problems scaling for real-world problems, but it’s a big future growth area too.
How is your company’s work addressing this growth?
Our product integrations with AI and ML via RapidMiner is addressing the market and setting organizations up with a path to modernization and automation. The analytic power of the RapidMiner platform, combined with Altair simulation and HPC tools, is quickly delivering results in this area. There will be more to come throughout 2024.
What conferences did you attend in 2023 and how was the traffic?
In 2023 I attended some informative TSMC semiconductor events, as well as the Design Automation Conference in San Francisco. DAC was extremely well-attended with lots of networking opportunities and visits with old friends and colleagues, plus an exciting view into the latest technologies from vendors throughout the semiconductor and EDA industry. Everyone seemed eager to participate and engage. Multiple Altair Technology Conferences (ATCs) were an excellent opportunity to discuss the latest trends, technologies, and innovations powered by the convergence of computational science and AI. Altair also participates in the SC supercomputing conference each fall, plus several smaller conferences throughout the year.
Will you attend conferences in 2024? Same or more?
We’ve already started the year off with a bang: This January was Altair’s first time at CES (formerly the Consumer Electronics Show) in Las Vegas. CES was quite an event, packed with tech enthusiasts and rolling along with a high energy level and enthusiastic crowd — a fascinating and informative experience. I’m looking forward to attending DAC again this summer and SC24 in Atlanta this fall, plus worldwide GSA and TSMC events. I’ll rarely pass up an opportunity to connect with colleagues and customers and learn more about everyone’s latest advances.
Additional questions or final comments?
Today’s tech world is an exciting place to be, with immense growth and even greater growth potential. At Altair, I’m proud to be part of the technological evolution that’s converging to move computing, business, and knowledge forward. It’s the technology our future will be built on.
Also Read:
Altair’s Jim Cantele Predicts the Future of Chip Design
How to Enable High-Performance VLSI Engineering Environments
Optimizing Return on Investment (ROI) of Emulator Resources
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