Gary Smith EDA Consulting in Electronic Design

DAC 2009
The Congeniality DAC

DAC is back. What was most evident was that the sense of community had returned to the hallways. A big part of that was Cadence’s return. Cadence’s new management team is mostly EDA Industry veterans and has completely turned around the atmosphere there. This is a much welcomed return to the EDA Industry we have grown to love.

Social Media
To coincide with this DAC 09 is also being called the DAC of Social Media. Facebook and twittering joined blogging as topics at DAC. Karen Bartleson walked off with the award for the blogger of the year. Congratulations to Karen and the other bloggers who are enriching our Industry.

Sunday Night Reception
DAC started out well with a combined Executive Chair Reception, GSEDA Presentation and EDAC Reception. The room was packed with Peggy Aycinena running around all smiles, as she was all DAC. This was definitely an UP DAC. I will say that my experience playing in bands came in handy giving my presentation. Reminded me of a line from a Credence Clearwater song Lodi, “If only I had a dollar, for every song I’ve sung. Every time I had to play, while people sat there drunk ;->”

The Conference
My favorite panel was Doug Fairbairn’s Pavilion Panel. Doug has been an important part of EDA since his days at Stanford. I’ll keep nominating him for the Kaufman award and hopefully one day he’ll be selected.

William Dally’s keynote was excellent. In fact the coverage for multi-core was great. We still need to draw more embedded engineers into the conference. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

One last comment is that I think we should stop putting on our self flagellation panels. Now is the most exciting era we’ve seen in EDA. There is more opportunity than ever. And yes I do want Casey to become an engineer. If you don’t agree maybe it’s time to switch Industries. Try automotive ;->

Conclusion
All in all Andrew and his team should be congratulated. This was a great DAC. I’m happy for Andrew, couldn’t of happened to a nicer guy.

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