SpyGlass World at Levi Stadium, October 21st

I suppose you might have something better to do next Wednesday but, seriously, it had better be pretty good. I admit I’m biased (I was the Atrenta CTO until very recently) but even given that and mixing metaphors, Atrenta really knocked it out of the park when they got the 49er stadium for their User Group meetings. You don’t have to be a 49er fan (perhaps not easy to admit these days) or even a football fan to enjoy the event. It’s held in the United Club, a luxurious and relaxing environment with a panoramic view of the field and ample room to stretch your legs, both inside and outside. Oh, and the food is pretty darn good too. And they have raffle prizes and a grand prize of 49er tickets. And a luxury cruise… OK, I made that last one up. But you get the point. This is a much easier way to spend a day than the way you typically spend your day.

Synopsys says they are committed to maintaining continuity for SpyGlass, which is why they are continuing these user meetings. Philippe Magarshack, now CTO of ST and a long-standing supporter of Atrenta opens with a keynote on application of FD-SOI in fast growing markets, especially for IoT. You’re not often going to get to hear directly from the technical #1 in the leader in FD-SOI how he thinks it stacks up against FinFETS. The day continues with user experiences from Marvell, Infineon, Synopsys (should also be fascinating), Xilinx and Broadcom. The event wraps up with a forward look into Synopsys verification directions which will be a must-see for anyone wanting to know how SpyGlass will fold into the Synopsys family and where Synopsys is headed with static verification.

When you need to explain to your supervisor why you should be doing this rather than re-running those simulations for the 95[SUP]th[/SUP] time, you might mention that user-groups are important for a perspective into how competitors in your industry are using these tools, and that your company needs to stay current on best-in-class practices. The funny thing is, this is actually true. You can’t improve your own competitiveness and company competitiveness unless you focus some of your time on important tasks (learning) over urgent tasks (fighting the latest fire).

So get started on whining your boss into letting you spend a day away from the company treadmill. You won’t regret it. Register HERE.

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