The 39th DAC Design the 'Big Easy' Way

摘要

The mission of the EDA industry is to help electronics engineers in transforming a concept nto a shippable product. Toward that end, two factors today predominate in motivating the development of EDA tools: electrophys-ical phenomena responsible for critical design issues for processes smaller than 250 nm and the demand for ubiquitous connectivity, emphasizing the need for new communication methods. DAC (Design Automation Conference, www.dac.com) has served for many years as the bellwether for the EDA industry, and the program of the upcoming conference once again mirrors the promises and shortcomings of the industry. This year's DAC will take place on June 10 through 14 in New Orleans. Like its predecessors, the 39th DAC wil; strive to provide a state-of-the-art picture of the work going on in EDA. This year's technical program underscores that the industry is strengthening the tools it introduced in the last 18 months to support designs targeting 180 nm and smaller (see sidebar "DAC addresses both hardware and software designers"). The semiconductor industry is also beginning to face 100-nm and smaller processes (see sidebar "New issues face designers at processes of 100 nm and smaller").