DATE 2008

• Congratulations DATE, you’ve pulled it off. You have become a major conference for Embedded Software development, especially that pertaining to Multi-Core/Multi-Processor systems. DATE 2008 had a separate Embedded Track that contained a strong technical program. As was the case at DATE 2007 the Embedded/Multi-Core panels were the most attended panels.
  
  What was even more impressive was that DATE, announcing its intention of becoming a true “systems” design automation (SDA) conference, used this year’s automotive emphasis to bring mechanical design to the table. Of course system level design also includes bio, optical, chemical and all other design disciplines necessary for today and tomorrow’s system design. These topics will all be addressed throughout DATE’s quest to become the first true full system design conference.
  
  True system level design was led by the automotive emphasis and Mathworks took full advantage of it by featuring its system-level model-based design work with the automotive vendors. One surprise was that UML was being discussed a lot. MARTE, a new version of unified modeling language (UML), was presented in the keynote speech by Dominique Vernay, the CTO of THALES. Also, Axilica introduced a UML to RTL Synthesizer at the show.
  
  The show’s attendance was a little higher than 2007’s Munich DATE, which had 4,700 attendees. The lead quality reported by most vendors was excellent. Munich was warmer than usual, providing us a pleasant stay in one of the most interesting cities in Europe.
  
  Overall it was a great DATE as the conference continues to develop into the true system level design conference of the future.
  
  Gary Smith