Program, Keynotes, Exhibitors, and Location Designed to Make the 39th DAC Hotter than Hot!

This year's Design Automation Conference—now celebrating its 39th year—returns to New Orleans, LA, 10–14 June. The combination of a strong technical program with an extensive exhibitor showplace and, this year, a "hotter than hot" location makes it a conference not to be missed.

DAC is the conference that helped launch an industry. Since its inception, it has offered designers the opportunity to discover the best in new technology and new products while meeting with the best people in the industry–all in one place. It is a comprehensive forum for continuing education, networking, and information exchange. It gives designers one place to research new products or identify ones that will help with that new design. Breakthroughs in electronic design automation (EDA) research are presented in the technical program. And, many a successful EDA company have been launched at DAC.

This year's conference is no exception. It boasts more than 250 exhibits hosted by EDA, semiconductor and embedded device vendors, and more than 100 demo suites for private, personalized product demonstrations. DAC pioneered the use of demo suites–a concept now widely imitated throughout the trade show industry.

The technical program exposes attendees to new developments in design methodologies and design tools. This year's program includes 160 technical papers, culled from a record number of submissions, covering a wide range of topics, both practical and theoretical, affecting electronics designers and computer-aided design (CAD) developers. The program, now being finalized, tackles new developments in the design flow, from high-level specification, simulation and verification, to synthesis, place-and-route, and testing. System-On-a-Chip (SOC) design and test, as well as embedded system design are key topics. Low power design, particularly in large embedded system designs, also features prominently in the technical program.

The conference includes eight panels where individuals with differing points of view argue their positions. Attendees will hear discussions ranging from Wall Street's view of EDA moderated by the CEO of Synopsys, to challenges in nanometer design, formal verification, and ASIC signoff. One panel, sure to be controversial, will debate which is the bigger bottleneck: tools or users. Another will try to determine the next growth area in the electronics industry and, hence, the next EDA driver. Attendees interested in analog design can help panelists decide if re-usable analog intellectual property will ever be a reality.

Hands-on tutorials are a new feature of DAC this year. They will give attendees an opportunity to learn new products in an informal and casual setting. Of course, DAC's regular tutorial program, held Friday, offers up to six full-day tutorials on core EDA topics such as design verification, hardware description languages, low-power design, and deep sub-micron design issues.

The Tuesday keynote address will be given by Dr. Hajime Sasaki, chair of the NEC Corporation, who will discuss new challenges faced by the CAD industry in light of changes that are occurring in the way we design chips. Jerry Fiddler, chair and co-founder of Wind River Systems, will deliver the Thursday keynote. He will explore ways in which we might bring the embedded software design industry and the hardware EDA industry together to more seamlessly design complex systems on a chip.

Chris King, chief executive officer (CEO) of AMI Semiconductor and the first woman to lead a semiconductor company, will deliver the keynote at the Workshop for Women in Design Automation (WWINDA). The yearly workshop is scheduled for Monday, 10 June, from 1:15 p.m.– 4 p.m. Now in its fifth year, the workshop offers individuals who work in the design automation industry the opportunity to hear successful women speak on topics relevant to their careers. The winner of the Marie R. Pistilli Women in EDA Achievement Award, presented annually to the individual who has visibly helped advance women, will also be awarded during the workshop.

There's also a new DAC pavilion on the exhibit floor, offering mini-panel sessions, interviews and video feed from key technical presentations. This year's conference again will feature the Embedded Systems Showcase. In addition, the Student Design Contest award winners will be announced at DAC. This year's entries come from a range of international and U.S. participants. Entry topics range from digital signal processing to wearable computing systems to DNA sequence matching.

Early registration for IEEE or ACM members is $270 and is $335 for non-members. This includes a three-day conference pass for the technical program and exhibits, conference proceedings and refreshments. Pricing for tutorials and workshops is found on the DAC Web site, as is online registration. The DAC Web site is located at www.dac.com.

In this time of uncertainty in our industry, it has never been more important to stay informed and aware of emerging trends. One of the best ways to achieve this is through attendance at technical conferences such as DAC. More than 15,000 CAD developers, researchers, managers, and engineers attend from leading electronics companies, universities, and the EDA industry. New products are introduced, research is described and successful design methods are highlighted. For anyone in electronics design or EDA, it's an event not to be missed. I look forward to seeing you there.

Nanette V. Collins
Publicity Chair
39th DAC
nanette@nvc.com