Synopsys Revamps Formal at #51DAC

Synopsys Revamps Formal at #51DAC
by Paul McLellan on 06-30-2014 at 6:02 pm

Synopsys announced verification compiler a couple of months ago and dropped hints about their static and formal verification. They haven’t announced anything much for a couple of years and it turns out that the reason was that they decided that the technology that they had, some internally developed and some acquired, … Read More


Wally Rhines at #51DAC: EDA Grows From Solving New Problems

Wally Rhines at #51DAC: EDA Grows From Solving New Problems
by Paul McLellan on 06-24-2014 at 8:23 pm

Wally Rhines gave the keynote at DAC in 2004. One of the things that he pointed out ten years ago was that EDA revenue for any given market segment is pretty much flat once the initial growth phase has taken place and the market has been established. Incremental EDA revenue only comes from delivering new capabilities. Historically… Read More


Cliff Hou’s DAC Keynote

Cliff Hou’s DAC Keynote
by Paul McLellan on 06-23-2014 at 10:21 am

Cliff Hou had two major appearances at DAC this year. He gave the opening day keynote…and he wrote the forward to Dan and my bookFabless: the Transformation of the Semiconductor Industry which about 1500 lucky people got a copy of courtesy of several companies, most notably eSilicon who sponsored the Tuesday evening post-conference… Read More


Hogan’s Internet of Things Panel

Hogan’s Internet of Things Panel
by Paul McLellan on 06-06-2014 at 10:50 am

Jim Hogan organized a panel on the Internet of Things (IoT) on Wednesday afternoon. The panellists were Randy Smith of Sonics, Bernard Murphy of Atrenta, Gary Smith (himself) and Frank Shirrmeister of Cadence.

Gary reckons that IoT is a Wall Street buzzword being used to get stock prices up. If you go to a series of presentations … Read More


Impressions of #51DAC

Impressions of #51DAC
by Paul McLellan on 06-05-2014 at 9:56 am

So what was the overall theme of DAC this year? Usually there seems to be some trend that is hot. A few years ago it was power, then more recently all the stuff associated with 20nm and 16nm such as FinFETs and double patterning. Those things are still around, of course, and there are new generations of tools.

One theme is that more design… Read More


Advice for Out-of-towners

Advice for Out-of-towners
by Paul McLellan on 06-02-2014 at 3:29 am

You are visiting San Francisco and you have dutifully read your guide book. Let me give you some contrarian advice.

See the Golden Gate Bridge. The best way is not to drive there or get a taxi, but to rent a bicycle (lots of places on that side of the city, try Googling “blazing saddles”) and cycle across the bridge. You can then go down … Read More


Don’t Eat Rubber Chicken in the Best Food City in the World

Don’t Eat Rubber Chicken in the Best Food City in the World
by Paul McLellan on 05-31-2014 at 8:55 am

You are going to DAC next week. And you don’t want to eat a Moscone Center rubber chicken Caesar salad for lunch. But you lack local knowledge. So here are some places within a 10 minute walk (these are just places I like. Nobody is paying me to recommend them).

The food court in the San Francisco Center on Market Street between … Read More


DAC is Next Week!

DAC is Next Week!
by Paul McLellan on 05-31-2014 at 3:03 am

DAC starts on Sunday. If you are in San Francisco on Sunday then the first event is the normal welcome reception. This is the ultimate networking event in EDA. It is in the Intercontinental Hotel about a block from the convention center and runs from 5.30 to 7pm. This is preceded by Gary Smith’s traditional kickoff from 5pm to… Read More


TSMC: Keynote, OIP, 20nm, 16nm, panels, and more #51DAC

TSMC: Keynote, OIP, 20nm, 16nm, panels, and more #51DAC
by Paul McLellan on 05-28-2014 at 8:11 pm

What is TSMC doing at DAC?

The biggest event is presumably Cliff Hou’s DAC keynote on Monday at 3.25pm Industry Opportunities in the Sub-10nm Era. And he also wrote the foreword to Fabless, the book that Dan Nenni and I have written and where you can get a signed copy on Tuesday evening at the reception.

There is an IP workshop … Read More


Mark Milligan Joins Calypto. Plus Google at DAC

Mark Milligan Joins Calypto. Plus Google at DAC
by Paul McLellan on 05-27-2014 at 12:07 pm

I talked to Mark Milligan this morning, who has just joined Calypto as VP Marketing. I first met Mark back when he was at CoWare and I was at VaST or maybe it was Virtutech. Then he moved on and ran marketing at SpringSoft which, I’m sure you remember, Synopsys acquired. I asked him what encouraged him to join Calypto.

He said that… Read More