The Hot Zone: Do Good While Having Fun

The Hot Zone: Do Good While Having Fun
by Paul McLellan on 05-29-2013 at 12:39 pm


The big 50th Anniversary party for DAC is on Monday night at the home of Austin City Limits. However, you can do good while enjoying yourself and also get into “The Hot Zone”, an exclusive area within the party in the penthouse Jack and Jim Gallery. The Gallery features 30 original photographs from the godfather of music… Read More


RTL Signoff Theater

RTL Signoff Theater
by Paul McLellan on 05-29-2013 at 11:00 am

We have talked for years about RTL signoff, the idea that a design could be finalized at the RTL level and then most of the signoff would take place there. Then the design would be passed to a physical implementation team who would not expect to run into any problems (such as routing congestion, missing the power budget or similar problems).… Read More


Jasper’s DAC Program

Jasper’s DAC Program
by Paul McLellan on 05-28-2013 at 3:52 pm

Jasper’s booth is 2346 where you can see demos of the JasperGold Apps and attend seminars on the experiences of ST and Broadcom, and others:

  • The Broadcom presentation on making formal an integral part of chip design is Tuesday at 10am.
  • The ST presentation on adapting formal methods in ARM subsystems is Monday at 1.30pm and
Read More

Barbecue at DAC

Barbecue at DAC
by Paul McLellan on 05-28-2013 at 1:55 pm

I already wrote about Franklin Barbecue, by some rankings the best in the whole country. If you want to go there you must be there early. They start serving at 11am and run out of food around 1pm. Closed on Monday.

But there are other barbecue and similar places near the convention center. Since I’m not an Austin native (we’ll… Read More


Bringing Sanity to Analog IC Design Verification

Bringing Sanity to Analog IC Design Verification
by Daniel Payne on 05-24-2013 at 1:07 pm

Two weeks ago I blogged about analog verification and it started a discussion with 16 comments, so l’ve found that our readers have an interest in this topic. For decades now the Digital IC design community has used and benefited from regression testing as a way to measure both design quality and progress, ensuring that first… Read More


Transistor-Level Update from Cadence at DAC

Transistor-Level Update from Cadence at DAC
by Daniel Payne on 05-20-2013 at 7:47 pm

My 8 years as an IC circuit designer were at the transistor-level, so if that interests you as well then consider what there is to see from Cadence at DAC this year. IC design technology is changing quickly, so keeping up to date is important for your job security and continual education goals.

Here’s what I would recommend attending… Read More


Complete Schedule of Synopsys 2013 DAC Events, Panels & Paper Participation (Free Food!)

Complete Schedule of Synopsys 2013 DAC Events, Panels & Paper Participation (Free Food!)
by Daniel Nenni on 05-19-2013 at 9:01 pm

Funny story, @ #49DAC I saw Aart with a very relaxed look on his face looking at the exhibit hall and in my mind he was thinking, “Mine, all mine!” But I digress……. Synopsys is the #1 EDA company for a reason and here is the supporting data for that hypothesis:

Synopsys is committed to accelerating Innovation… Read More


#50DAC: Winning in Monte Carlo!

#50DAC: Winning in Monte Carlo!
by Daniel Nenni on 05-18-2013 at 4:00 pm

One of the places you will be able to find me at the Design Automation Conference (DAC) is on the speaker panel for a Monday Tutorial – Winning in Monte Carlo: Managing Simulations Under Variability and Reliability. Having worked closely with TSMC, GLOBALFOUNDRIES, Solido Design Automation, and some of the top fabless semiconductor… Read More


Cadence Technical Sessions @ #50DAC (Free Food!)

Cadence Technical Sessions @ #50DAC (Free Food!)
by Daniel Nenni on 05-16-2013 at 10:00 am


Cadence is a DAC anchor, everyone will visit their booth, so lets look at their technical sessions and put our agendas together. Lets start with the breakfast/lunch sessions because Cadence usually puts out quite a spread, we all gotta eat and free food tastes even better:

Has “Timing Signoff Innovation” Become an Oxymoron? WhatRead More


UVM/SystemVerilog: Verification and Debugging

UVM/SystemVerilog: Verification and Debugging
by Daniel Payne on 05-13-2013 at 2:45 pm

At DAC in just three weeks you can learn about which EDA vendors are supporting the latest UVM 1.1d (Universal Verification Methodology) standard as defined by Accellera. One of those EDA vendors is Aldec, and they have a 45 minute technical session that you can register for online. Space will fill up quickly, so get signed up sooner… Read More