Brian Otis at the Monday keynote...
Coming out of an amazing DAC it is really hard to start planning the next event. Still, the beat goes on and the 53rd DAC planning cycle started on Friday, June 12.
What did it feel like to close the event I worked on for 52 weeks? It felt great! Especially considering how well received “my DAC” has been. It doesn’t happen very often that a fire marshal denies entry to the keynote at DAC because the room is too full... Read More
I’d like to modify a much-recycled quote by Thomas Friedman. In his 2005 book The World Is Flat, the New York Times columnist wrote: “In China today, Bill Gates is Britney Spears. In America today, Britney Spears is Britney Spears-and that is our problem.” My version: “At DAC today John Rogers was more compelling than any rock star and that is something we all should celebrate in our industry.”
The University of Illinois professor ran through a series of recent results in the world's most... Read More
1 p.m.
When it comes to IoT opportunity, sales of services will vastly outweigh sales of goods. So said Ali Sebt of Renesas Electronics America. Think of the Nest API, which allows for building new apps that make use of data from those thermostats that keep coming up with every mention of IoT. Nest thermostats include motion sensors smart enough to tell whether it’s you or your pet that just wandered by, information that of course might be useful for a company who wants to sell alarm... Read More
9 a.m.
Great discussion earlier today by our three panelists: Jeffrey Massimilla, chief product cybersecurity officer at General Motors; Craig Smith of Theia Labs and OpenGarages.org; and journalist John McElroy. Here are three quick takeaways in case you missed it. (Ahem, those of you who were out too late at the Denali party, I’m talking to you.)
Craig: The challenge is how to make cars secure without closing off the ability to customize and tinker, which Americans especially love to... Read More
1 p.m. Virtual to the (Near) End – Using Virtual Platforms for Continuous Integration
Wind River Systems' Jakob Engblom shared this anecdote about one aerospace customer that had recently shifted from doing testing and integration in a hardware test lab to a virtual (i.e., mostly software-based) system. One day, an engineer at the company involved in testing breathlessly announced to his colleagues a discovery he'd just made: the hardware test lab had been disassembled and lots of the... Read More
9 a.m.
Another standing room only morning in the general session! Intel Fellow Vivek Singh started things off with a fabulous overview of Moore’s Law, which included this assurance to all naysayers: Moore’s Law will continue because at its heart it’s about brilliant engineers solving design problems day in and day out. Given ever smaller feature sizes, advances in lithography, will be critical. Think advanced lithography is intuitive? Consider that the mask on left prints the image on the... Read More
1 p.m., Telle Whitney
Companies that have more women throughout the organization thrive — demonstrating improved ROI, increased innovation and better ability to solve problems. That was the takeaway from Telle Whitney's 1 p.m. DAC Pavilion presentation on Women, Leadership and Technology. Telle is the president and CEO of the Anita Borg Institute in Palo Alto, so she knows what she's talking about.
Raise the issue of women in tech and invariably people will say it all can be explained by what’s... Read More
We’re off and running here in San Francisco at #52DAC. Brian Otis’ keynote on the Google Smart Contact Lens project, which aims to provide continuous glucose monitoring to help manage diabetes, was a standing-room only event. And for good reason. Despite decades in this industry, it’s still possible to be blown away. Inspired, too, as was my colleague and past DAC chair, Soha Hassoun.
This was the designer keynote and it was great fun to listen to Brian lay out some of the design... Read More
See you next week at Moscone!
We made it. This is blog #52 on our joint journey to DAC. Part of me can’t believe that Monday I will be opening the 52nd Design Automation Conference. It’s been a roller-coaster year of ups and downs, and I know for sure that without my amazing peers on the DAC executive committee, the conference never would have come together. Thank you guys – you have been great to work with. Let’s dazzle everyone with a stellar performance on the final... Read More
It’s come to the point where I’m counting the days to DAC – especially nerve wracking considering how much I still have to do to get ready. Just this morning I spoke with Jeff Massimilla and Craig Smith about their Wednesday morning keynote dialogue on connected cars. Helping pull together #52DAC, which includes loads of excellent content on automotive systems, has driven home (sorry) how today’s cars truly are computer platforms on wheels. This generally is great news for us as... Read More
DAC's many collocated events are just one sign of the conference's vibrant ecosystem.
While our free “I love DAC” registration comes to an end this week, there are still a few weeks left to register for the full conference, the designer and IP track, or one of the many collocated events at DAC (see below). Over the last year I’ve been reminded often about the unique niche occupied by DAC. Just last week a good friend was trying to find an industry event in the greater... Read More
When I was a little kid my parents would pack me and my sister into the car and drive to the Mediterranean for our summer camping vacation. It was quite a haul from our home on the west side of Germany near the border with Belgium to the south of France and as is true of any long car trip, the last stretch was the hardest. After hours in the backseat, my sister and I would be craning our necks, competing to be the first to see the sparkling Mediterranean Sea while constantly pestering my... Read More
I have to admit, writing the weekly blog has made the countdown to DAC a lot more apparent than it would have been otherwise. When I began blogging last year, I thought the watched-pot-never-boils maxim might apply, that time would drag and I’d run out of things to say months before the opening keynote. Instead, I’m fairly stunned to have just four more blogs to write until “my DAC year” will be over. More importantly, you have only one week left to take advantage of early registration rates... Read More
Editor's update: Anne has extended the deadline regarding boosting her donation to the Nepal relief effort. Now, for each new DAC registration through May 8, she will add $1 to her forthcoming donation to aid earthquake victims.In one of my early blog posts I explained that DAC is owned by three non-profit societies: ACM, IEEE/CEDA and EDAC. While the executive committee right now is working on a successful 52nd DAC, planning for future events has already started. Future locations are usually... Read More
Last year we moved DAC’s official opening session from Tuesday to Monday. The move makes perfect sense as there is much on the Monday schedule, including tutorials as well as the designer and IP track sessions. The opening session has always been special at DAC. It is the most popular general session as various awards are given out that day too.This is how it works: throughout the year ACM and IEEE give out numerous awards at their sponsored conferences. The awardees can choose the event where... Read More
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