Must-See DAC Panel – Build vs Buy: Who Owns the Intelligence Behind Tomorrow’s Chips?

This year, DAC will be buzzing about AI from every direction. The debate of build vs. buy will also be a popular topic. And the debate of who owns the intellectual property embodied in chip designs and how to control it will also get a significant amount of airtime. These are all interesting and compelling discussion points. It turns out there is one session at DAC that combines all three in what promises to be a memorable and spirited discussion. Let’s look at a must-see DAC panel – build vs buy: who owns the intelligence behind tomorrow’s chips?

The Moderator

The panel will be moderated by Daniel Nenni, founder of SemiWiki.com, the open forum for semiconductor professionals. Dan has a storied 40-year career in semiconductors and EDA. If it has anything to do with developing or selling EDA or IP, Dan has been there to see it unfold. He has an open, honest and direct style. These qualities suggest this panel will be lively and entertaining.

The Panelists

The panel is organized into two groups – three IP providers and three tool providers. So, you’ll get a chance to hear both perspectives on the topic. Photos of the panelists are shown at the top of this post. Let’s take a quick look at why they’re participating.

Representing the semiconductor IP perspective

Rusafa Shahreen, Director of Technical Marketing, Alphacore Inc. Rusafa has been doing technical marketing at Alphacore for almost eight years. She has talked to a lot of customers in that time and has probably heard it all.

Mahesh Tirupattur, CEO of Analog Bits. Mahesh has been with Analog Bits for 23 years. Before that, he co-founded Virtual Silicon and worked at Aspec Technology and Sun Microsystems. Mahesh is something of a folk hero in the analog IP world. He’s forgotten more than most people know about the subject.

Michal Siwinski, EVP, Chief Product and Marketing Officer at Arteris. Michal has been with Arteris for four and half years. Before that, he had a long and varied career at Cadence, Verplex Systems and Mentor Graphics. He’s had plenty of interactions with customers over his career across IP and EDA tools.

Representing the tool-supplier perspective

Amit Gupta, who gets the prize for the longest title, Senior Vice President & GM of Solido Custom IC Division and Chief AI Strategy Officer at Siemens EDA. Amit was the founder, president and CEO of Solido before the company was acquired by Siemens EDA in 2017. Amit is also an Advisory Board Member at the National Research Council Canada. He has done early pioneering work on adding AI to the chip design flow.

Simon Rance, General Manager, IP and Data Management Business at Keysight Technologies. Simon has been at Keysight for three and half years. Before that, he was at Cliosoft, Arm, Duolog Technologies and Synopsys. Simon has seen both sides of the semiconductor IP world, selling and buying.

Nagesh Gupta, Founder & CEO at llmda.ai. Before founding llmda, Nagesh had a long career at companies such as HP, Cadence, Xilinx, and Lattice Semi. He has seen what can go wrong when the data that drives chip development is unreliable. These experiences are what drove him to form llmda.ai to provide an enduring solution to these problems. Nagesh is the organizer of the panel.

What Will be Discussed

There are three topics that will be explored in this panel:

Agentic AI and its impact on IP development and integration

The configuration and integration challenges encountered when delivering IP for complex systems

Ways to address these IP configuration and integration challenges

Each panelist will bring their unique experiences and perspectives to the discussion. I’m looking forward to a spirited and thought-provoking session.

Come and See for Yourself

The panel will be held in the DAC Pavillion on the exhibit floor on Tuesday, July 28 from 3:00pm – 3:45PM PDT. Here is a link to the conference program entry where you can learn more. See you at DAC for the must-see panel – build vs buy: who owns the intelligence behind tomorrow’s chips?

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