The Design Automation Conference (DAC) is an annual ritual in the world of EDA and the electronics industry, and it remains the single largest venue for announcing progress in Si2 standards, sharing that progress in (free) technical workshops, demonstrating that progress in demos, and celebrating our collaborative successes together (as in face-to-face, an increasingly rare opportunity in this Internet age). In this week’s blog I’ll quickly summarize “everything DAC” from an Si2 perspective. With nearly 100 corporate members, there’s a lot going on.

A New Era For DFM: If you care about DFM and yield (and who doesn’t these days?), then you will want to attend Si2’s free DFM Workshop (http://www2.dac.com/workshops+_+colocated+events.aspx?event=22&topic=3). The DFM workshop describes the tools and techniques used to recapture the lost opportunities in performance and power while building designs which are more robust to greater process variability, and the agenda will include speakers from: Cadence, GLOBALFOUNDRIES, Intel, IC Scope, Grid Simulation Technology, and North Carolina State.

Advancing PDKs: If you care about custom, analog, or library design using Process Design Kits (a very hot topic lately), then you will want to attend the free “Advances in Process Design Kits” Workshop
(http://www2.dac.com/workshops+_+colocated+events.aspx?event=91&topic=13). This workshop will introduce all of the aspects of PDKs and the presenters will describe the state of the art and make recommendations for future work in the following areas. Interoperable Schematic Symbols, Design Parameter Specification, Callback Specifications, Pcells, SPICE Sockets, Technology File enhancements, and Process Retargeting and Verification. The agenda will include speakers from Cadence, GLOBALFOUNDRIES, Intel, Mentor Graphics, Springsoft, and Si2.

22-Year Celebration: Tired after a long day of DAc’ing around? Si2 is offering an Open Reception Monday (before those evening events) for drinks light hors d’oeuvres (http://www.si2.org/?page=1192). We will also celebrate the milestone election of GLOBALFOUNDRIES to Si2’s Board of Directors with an invited speech from Dr. Mojy Chian, Senior Vice President, Design Services and Enablement at GLOBALFOUNDRIES. I will also present a quick summary of Si2, our exciting year’s accomplishments, and directions ahead.

Five-Ring Circus at the Si2 Booth (#502): It’s a busy place at this year’s Si2 booth, with 5 EDA vendor demonstrations of products that integrate Si2 standards and collaborative technology, including Anaglobe, Cadence, Magma, Pulsic, and Synopsys. These companies will be showing how Si2 standards developed by the OpenAccess Coalition, the Low Power Coalition, the Open Modeling Coalition and the Design for Manufacturability Coalition can provide innovative approaches to critical IC design flow issues. An introduction to the new OpenPDK Coalition will also be highlighted.

Public Announcements: In case you don’t read the news, you might have missed some of the 12 (yes, that’s right – twelve!) press releases published on Si2, our coalitions, and new deliverables in the weeks leading up to DAC. Some of the major ones include the TSMC / Mentor / Synopsys contribution of iDRC to Si2, the new CPF-UPF low-power interoperability guide, members joining the new OpenPDK Coalition and OpenAccess Coalition, and our newly-elected Board members for 2010-2011. Also, many vendors have announced commercial support of Si2’s standards in their product announcements, which we very much appreciate.