Joe Costello Selected to Receive EDA Industry's Kaufman Award
SAN JOSE, Calif.—(BUSINESS WIRE)—Sept. 27, 2004—
The Electronic Design Automation (EDA) Consortium today
announced that Joe Costello, chairman and CEO of think3 and former
chairman and CEO of Cadence Design Systems, is this year's recipient
of the EDA industry's prestigious Phil Kaufman Award. The Consortium
will present the Award on Thursday, October 28, at its 11th annual
Award dinner and ceremony in San Jose.
The EDA industry fuels the trillion dollar global electronics
industry, providing the critical technology to automate the design of
electronics that enable the Information Age, including communications,
computers, space technology, medical and industrial equipment and
consumer electronics. EDA technologies make it possible for the
world's electronic companies to keep up with the demand for smaller,
faster, more powerful and lower cost electronic products. To view a
video about the EDA industry visit www.edac.org.
Presented annually by the EDA Consortium, the Phil Kaufman Award
honors an individual whose contributions have had measurable impact on
the creativity and productivity of design engineers. For more
information on the Award and to attend the event, go to
http://www.edac.org.
Joe Costello was selected to receive the Phil Kaufman Award
because of his business contributions that helped grow the EDA
industry. Under his leadership (1987-1997), Cadence became the world's
leading supplier of EDA software and services and one of the top ten
largest software suppliers in the world.
"Joe Costello was a significant force in the growth of the EDA
industry," remarked Walden C. Rhines, EDA Consortium chairman and
chairman and CEO of Mentor Graphics Corporation. "He displayed a savvy
ability to recognize important design trends and did a great job of
moving the industry forward to capitalize on those trends."
"One of Joe's greatest and lasting contributions to our industry
was the way he expanded our view of what design technology really is
and what it could become," commented Richard Newton, Dean, College of
Engineering, University of California, Berkeley. "Through his
leadership, he added new dimensions to EDA and reformulated our view
of the entire industry -- in the years that followed, we have all
benefited greatly from his vision and the steps he took to implement
it."
Newton continued, "It is not surprising to me that many of Joe's
senior managers at Cadence have gone on to become very effective
industry leaders themselves -- both in business and in research and
development."
Mergers, Acquisitions, Better Products for Electronic Design
Among the significant events in Joe Costello's EDA career were
strategically planned mergers and acquisitions, as well as the
emergence of Verilog as one of the world most popular open hardware
design languages (HDLs).
Costello orchestrated the smooth merger of equals, SDA and ECAD,
to form Cadence in 1988. The merger anticipated the importance of
batch mode Design Rule Checking (DRC) for today's large, complex
designs.
He foresaw the importance of standard cell routing technology with
embedded blocks, and acquired companies and technology to grow his
company and meet the needs of electronic designers.
He anticipated the shift from schematics to hardware description
languages (HDLs) and made the acquisition of Gateway and its Verilog
language just as HDLs were beginning to take off. Later, he made the
decision to make Verilog an open standard.
Under his leadership, Cadence Berkeley Labs developed a faster
Verilog, NC Verilog. He foresaw its potential, acquired the original
ideas and launched the Labs Verilog project.
In his present role, Costello leads think3, a premiere supplier of
product development solutions to mid-sized manufacturers worldwide and
provider of innovative, next-generation product design solutions for
the industrial design industry. Under Costello's leadership the
Cincinnati-based privately-held company has grown dramatically over
the past three years and currently enables more than 5,000
manufacturers to achieve significant gains in competitiveness and
profitability by optimizing their product development process.
In addition, Joe Costello currently serves as chairman of
Barcelona Design, BravoBrava!, Soliloquy Learning and Zamba (NASDAQ:
ZMBA) and is on the board of Santa Cruz Networks. He holds a
Bachelor's Degree in Mathematics and Physics from Harvey Mudd College
and Master's Degrees in Physics from Yale University and the
University of California, Berkeley.
About the Phil Kaufman Award
The Phil Kaufman Award was established by the EDA Consortium in
honor of EDA industry pioneer Phil Kaufman, who turned innovative
technologies like silicon compilation and emulation into businesses
that have greatly benefited electronic designers. It has been
presented annually since 1994.
About the EDA Consortium
The EDA Consortium is the international association of companies
that provide tools and services that enable engineers to create the
world's electronic products. The EDA Consortium seeks to identify and
address issues that are common to its members and the customer
community that the member companies serve. The EDA Consortium office
is located at 111 West Saint John Street, Suite 220, San Jose, Calif.
95113, USA. For more information about the Consortium and how to
become a member call 408-287-3322 or visit www.edac.org.
Contact:
ValleyPR
Georgia Marszalek, 650-345-7477
Georgia@ValleyPR.com
