Eyes Meet Innovations at DAC

Eyes Meet Innovations at DAC
by Pawan Fangaria on 06-14-2015 at 7:00 am

It gives me a very nice, somewhat nostalgic, feeling after attending the 52[SUP]nd[/SUP] DAC. There was a period during my final academic year in 1990 and my first job when I used to search through good technical papers in DAC proceedings and try implementing those concepts in my project work. In general, representation from ‘R&D… Read More


Application Specific Integrated Comedy

Application Specific Integrated Comedy
by Paul McLellan on 06-11-2015 at 7:00 am

Tuesday night I got to meet an old colleague. OK, this is DAC, that is hardly a story. I was at the Synopsys media dinner and John Koeter handed out free wristbands to the Stars of IP party taking place later that evening. Remember, Synopsys is #3 in IP overall and #1 in interface IP. Talking of which, earlier in the day I was at the Synopsys… Read More


DAC: Self-driving Cars

DAC: Self-driving Cars
by Paul McLellan on 06-10-2015 at 7:00 am

The keynote on Tuesday at DAC was by Jeffrey Owens of Delphi. For those of you that don’t know, Delphi used to be the part of General Motors dealing with electronics spun out from GM as a separate company in 1999.

Jeffrey pointed out that a modern automobile is the most complex device any of us own, with over 100M lines of code (loc)… Read More


Google Smart Lens: IC Design and Beyond

Google Smart Lens: IC Design and Beyond
by Paul McLellan on 06-09-2015 at 1:00 am

Today’s DAC keynote was by Brian Otis of Google about their project, working with Novartis, to build disposable contact lenses that perform continuous glucose monitoring.

Why is this important? There are 382M people around the world with diabetes who typically have to check their blood glucose levels four times a day. … Read More


Ten Things to Do in San Francisco the Way the Locals Do

Ten Things to Do in San Francisco the Way the Locals Do
by Paul McLellan on 05-19-2015 at 7:00 am

DAC is in San Francisco, of course, and perhaps you have a day or two to do explore the city. Guidebooks will tell you to visit most of these places but there are much better ways to see them than they typically recommend. Follow these instructions and pretend you are a local.

1. Ride a Cable Car. But don’t wait in line for 45 minutes at Union… Read More


EDAC Game of Thrones: Bob Smith is the New Executive Director

EDAC Game of Thrones: Bob Smith is the New Executive Director
by Paul McLellan on 05-15-2015 at 7:00 am

Bob Smith has been appointed executive director of EDAC, following the retirement of Bob Gardner after nearly 20 years. Bob (Smith) was most recently the marketing and business development VP for Uniquify. However, he has been in the industry for a long time with stints at IKOS, Synopsys, LogicVision and Magma. He has even been … Read More


"An art can only be learned in the workshop of those who are winning their bread by it"

"An art can only be learned in the workshop of those who are winning their bread by it"
by Paul McLellan on 05-13-2015 at 7:00 am

That was said by the novelist Samuel Butler, but it is not a bad description of why you should spend the Sunday at DAC in one of the workshops that are taking place that day.

One workshop is on Design Automation for Beyond CMOS Technologies. Before getting to design automation, it is good to start with which technologies are potentially… Read More


Experts Talk at Mentor Booth

Experts Talk at Mentor Booth
by Pawan Fangaria on 05-11-2015 at 7:00 pm

It’s less than four weeks to go at DAC 2015 and the program is final now. So I started investigating new technologies, trends, methodologies, and tools that will be unveiled and discussed in this DAC. In the hindsight of the semiconductor industry over the last year, I see 14nm technologies in the realization stage and 10nm beckoning… Read More


DAC, IP, Parties and Philanthropy

DAC, IP, Parties and Philanthropy
by Daniel Payne on 05-07-2015 at 2:00 pm

My typical DACtrip is a blur of non-stop interviews with EDA, IP and Semiconductor vendors followed by a few dozen blogs to share what I’ve learned. I just became aware of something a bit different at DAC this year by talking with Jill Jacobs, an organizer for an event dubbed Heart of Technology (HoT) where they raise money for… Read More


Fractal at DAC 2015 – What’s new?

Fractal at DAC 2015 – What’s new?
by Pawan Fangaria on 05-01-2015 at 1:00 pm

I have been observing Fractal Technologiesexhibiting at DACyear after year, and every year they have demonstrated good value added features in their tools for SoC and IP development. This year at 52[SUP]nd[/SUP] DAC Fractal’s booth number is 1110. Earlier in this year Fractal had added a new ‘Cdiff’ feature in its flagship product… Read More