39th Design Automation Conference Set to Deliver Strong, Diverse Technical Program

BOULDER, Colo.-April 1, 2002-The 39th Design Automation Conference (DAC) today announced a robust technical program for its annual conference, to be held June 10-14 at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center, New Orleans. This year's conference offers DAC's traditionally diverse and expansive technical program with an increased role for embedded systems design. A new feature this year, the hands-on tutorials will allow participants to interactively work with design automation tools to solve specific design challenges (see separate press release). Also new are a full-day introductory tutorial on embedded systems, an introduction to EDA workshop, and the DAC Pavilion, which will broadcast live portions of the technical program on the exhibit floor.

"DAC is proud to announce another solid technical program offering attendees an even greater opportunity to learn and experience the hottest trends, tools and design methodologies in the industry," said Bryan Ackland, 39th DAC general chair and vice president of communications systems technology for Agere Systems. "Our goal is to ensure that we deliver the most up-to-date program content that can be applied to current, real-life design challenges. As a result, we will continue our embedded systems focus in addition to our diverse offerings in all areas of design."

More than 15,000 participants are expected to attend this year's conference, which will feature two dynamic keynote speakers, more than 225 exhibiting companies, demo suites, more than 160 papers, panels, sessions and tutorials, and various workshops.

Embedded Systems Design Highlights
Twelve sessions and panels containing more than 35 papers will be presented under various embedded systems design topics including:

• Design Innovations for Embedded Processors (session 3)
• Memory Management and Address Optimization in Embedded Systems (session 15)
• Case Studies in Embedded System Design (session 19)
• Theoretical Foundations of Embedded System Design (session 20)
• Embedded Software Automation (session 23)
• Panel: Unified Tools for SoC Embedded Systems (session 31)
• Design Methodologies Meet Network Applications (session 34)
• Timing Analysis and Memory Optimization for Embedded Systems (session 40)
• Processors and Accelerators for Embedded Systems (session 41)
• Scheduling Techniques for Embedded Systems (session 45)
• Development of Processors and Communication Networks for Embedded Systems (session 49)
• Design Space Exploration for Embedded Systems (session 54)

Additionally, the Embedded Systems Showcase located on the DAC exhibit floor will again display the latest tools and methodologies for embedded SoC design.

Technical Program Highlights
Eight panel sessions will offer debate and discussion with guests ranging from the media and industry analysts to chief executive officers. Panel topics include "Wall Street Evaluates EDA" (session 1), "Tools or Users, Which is the Bigger Bottleneck" (session 6), "Analog IP: Now? Or Never?" (session 12), "Nanometer Design, What Hurts Next?" (session 17), "Whither (or Wither) ASIC Handoff?" (session 22), "Unified Tools for SoC Embedded Systems: Mission Critical, Mission Impossible, or Mission Irrelevant" (session 31), "Formal Verification Methods: Getting Around the Brick Wall" (session 37), and "What is the Next EDA Driver" (session 42).

Six special sessions in the technical program will feature invited presentations by leading scholars and engineers. The topics cover "Life After CMOS: Evolution or Revolution?" (session 7), "E-Textiles" (session 11), "Optics: Lighting the Way to EDA Riches?" (session 16), "How Do You Design a 10- million Gate ASIC" (session 26), "Designing SoCs for Yield Improvement" (session 46) and "Energy Efficient Mobile Computing" (session 51).

Best Paper Awards
Technical papers to be presented at this year's DAC include topics covering system-level design, synthesis, physical design, verification, power, and IP issues. Five Best Paper Awards in the amounts of $1,000 each will be announced at the opening session on June 11, in the following categories:

• Design Synthesis, Test and Validation
• Analog/RF/Electrical Modeling and Simulation
• Design Methodology (two papers)
• Embedded Systems

Keynote Speakers
On Tuesday, June 11, Hajime Sasaki, chairman of the board of NEC Corp., will deliver the opening keynote address entitled "Paradigm Shift in Semiconductor Design: Challenges on the CAD System". Thursday's keynote will feature Jerry Fiddler, chairman and co-founder of Wind River Systems, who will present "Software and Silicon-Where's the Equilibrium?" (See separate press releases.)

Workshops
DAC will present the "Workshop on Teaching Functional Verification" on Sunday, June 9, which will focus on the realities of complex SoC and custom designs. On Monday, June 10, DAC will host the "Introduction to EDA Workshop" targeted to non-technical people. The "Interoperability Workshop," which will discuss the need for a new design system architecture and supporting standard data model API, will also take place on Monday, as will the highly popular "Workshop for Women in Design Automation."

Full-Day Tutorials
This year's full-day tutorials include "An Introduction to Embedded Software: Issues, Tools and Methods for Hardware and EDA Designers" to be held on Monday, June 10. This tutorial will introduce designers to fundamental methodologies, tools and algorithms for embedded real-time software design.

Other full-day tutorials scheduled for Friday, June 15, include:

• IP Design and Integration
• Modeling Technology for High Frequency Design
• Using SystemC for System Level Modeling and Design
• Physical Chip Implementation: Hot Spots and Best Practices
• New Computing Platforms for Embedded Systems

Registration
To register for DAC, visit www.dac.com or call 1-800-321-4573 in the U.S. to request registration materials. Advance registration deadline is May 13, 2002.

About DAC DAC is the premier forum for the electronic design industry to exchange information on products, methodologies, and processes. Attended by more than 15,000 developers, designers, researchers, managers, and engineers from leading electronics companies and universities around the world, DAC includes more than 225 exhibitors and offers a robust technical program covering the electronics industry's hottest trends.

The conference is sponsored by the Association for Computing Machinery/Special Interest Group on Design Automation (ACM/SIGDA), the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers/Circuits and Systems Society (IEEE/CAS) and the Electronic Design Automation Consortium (EDA Consortium). For more information, including registration, visit the DAC Web site at www.dac.com, or contact DAC management at 1-800-321-4573.

For more information, contact:

Julia Kelly-Echeverio
KVO Public Relations
(503) 721-4256
julia_kelly@kvo.com