Tom Anderson's Moment

My DAC Moment occurred in Las Vegas in 1996. I had attended the eight previous years as a CAD manager and, therefore, as a customer. In late 1995 I joined IP pioneer Virtual Chips as VP of Engineering, so 1996 was my first DAC as an exhibitor. I found it to be an entirely different experience, with some amazing customer discussions interleaved with quiet periods standing in the booth trying not to fall asleep on my feet.

IP was one of the "buzz" topics at this DAC, and there was a lot going on. We had great press interest in IP and were busy giving interviews and writing articles as fast as we could. Cadence convened a meeting of interested parties that eventually led to the formation of the Virtual Socket Interface Alliance (VSIA). We participated in that and also had some other partnerships and industry activities in various stages.

To top it off, we had significant interest from multiple parties in acquiring the company, so we had secret back-room meetings sandwiched in between everything else. It culminated with the first written offer to acquire Virtual Chips being received at the show. I've attended every DAC since then, 25 in all, but nothing else quite as exciting has happened. So that's my DAC Moment, one that perhaps I will never top and surely one that I will never forget.

Tom Anderson - Breker Verification Systems, Inc.