DesignCon 2012 Trip Reports (iPad2 Giveaway)

[Daniel Nenni]

SemiWiki will give another iPad2 to a member that participates in this thread. Post a trip report or if you are not able to attend post your thoughts on past experiences or what you have read about this year's show.

I was not an Apple fan but I must admit I use my iPad2 every day. It is an excellent piece of technology and the best tablet out there today.



For more DesignCon information: Conference | DesignCon 2012

For a free expo pass: https://designcon.reg.ubmelectronics...gncon_20120126

I will be there on Tuesday and Wednesday, it would be a pleasure to meet you!

D.A.N.

[Paul McLellan]

I went to Ilan Spillinger, CVP hardware and technology for Microsoft's keynote at DesignCon. I was expecting it to be an interesting perspective. After all, Microsoft is primarily a software company but they have also built up a large hardware business, initially with mice (30 years ago!) and keyboards and more recently with the Xbox and Kinect and variants. So it should be interesting to hear about their development methodology.

But there were two problems. First, the keynote was only 30 minutes long, which is pretty short to attempt to say anything significant given the obligatory opening ten minutes talking about the company's wonderful products (we got a video of Kinect being used to play musical instruments and move X-rays around in an operating theatre).

The IEB (Interactive Entertainment Business) that builds Xbox and Kinect has 400 people. They have shipped 66M consoles and have 40M subscribers. Since it came out they have shipped 18M Kinect.

Ilan's advice for designing this sort of hardware and ramping it quickly to volume, necessary in any consumer electronics business, was: flexibility, discipline and focus. Well, I'm not going to argue with that but it is not really something actionable that you can consider you learned at the event.

[Jasopin]

For more DesignCon information: Conference | DesignCon 2012

The major test equipment companies like Agelient, LeCroy, Tektronix, many PCB
suppliers/manufactures, connectors, and some high speed IP providers in the
EXPO. The focus seems to be supporting the design, test, manufacture, and debug
of high speed SERDES like USB 3.0, SATA, PCIe, etc 6Gb and 10Gb type of design.

The section of ifixit was interesting. However, we seemed to have more interest
to take apart his own iPad2 and reassembled it to see if it still works or not.

Other than that, I guess I need to visit Xilinx or Altera some where else to see
what they are up to with their FPGAs now.

[paragd86]

Visited DesignCon on 1st, Feb, and so many company in semiconductor industries with the new products. Visited iFixit at chip head theater. I my self disagree with their thought, to make the product hardware easy to read and understandable by their users, we are seeing even though strict IP law how much copy work and lower quality products out in market. I like some of the product with flexible heaters, flexible PCB design with multi layer design. Visited some of the simulator developer (Apache, Ansys) for MEMS simulation software.

Overall i feel satisfactory visiting the DisignCon enjoyed HMC's free coffee

[SunnyLining]

Went to DesignCon Tues and Wed (01/31 and 02/01) on the Expo pass. That meant no technical panels, which is too bad, because, being an analog IC guy, I really wanted to go see the one titled "Is It Time for an Analog Comeback?" Wish someone sponsored it.

The expo floor was covered, in particular, with everything PCB. I understand they have a reputation for being a PCB industry conference and are trying to become known for ICs as well. Thus, Si2 has a presence, but the EDA companies apparently didn't get that memo: Cadence was only promoting OrCAD and Allegro. There were, however, several silicon IP companies there: Mixel, Uniquify, Arasan, InnoPower.

Test equipment people, big and small, were there. Saw the latest toys from Agilent, LeCroy, Tektronix, Rohde & Schwartz; discovered Rigol and Picoscope. Found out Wavecrest is now Gigamax. I also went to Agilent's test equipment training forum on Wednesday and was excited to find they are trying to build in focused calibration, or otherwise automate it, in their oscilloscopes and VNAs (and other?). I don't think it is entirely generalized as yet, though. It clearly involves building in some TDR equipment.

Had a lot of fun talking to the computational electromagnetics people. Had a long talk with Lorentz Solutions, who specifically targets on-chip passives like coils and interdigiated caps. Discussed the most appropriate algorithm for different situations with AWR (MoM or finite element?), makers of Microwave Office. Had another long chat with a technical guy from Sonnet about how 2.5D simulators handle on-chip passives better than 3D solvers.

Loved the Chiphead Theater presentations, which ran pretty much continuously. Enjoyed the first one on why insertion loss exhibits ripples. Watching the tear downs was fun: a clear illustration tablets are not all made alike. The presentation on how to get into consulting was informative.

All in all, I found it to be a good nerdfest. Certainly, it's hard to argue with the free beer. I heard rumors the DoD is pushing RFICs. Speaking to topics that have shown up on SemiWiki: I heard mention of Nvidia's Kal-El and TI's OMAP, but I don't recall anyone mentioning Intel's Atom. I'd say that lack of buzz speaks volumes.

[Daniel Nenni]

To me, getting out and collaborating (meeting people) is what life is all about. As an "industry recognized international blogger" I get free passes to all conferences, such a deal. I go to as many as I can and I encourage the SemiWiki bloggers to drive as much traffic to these events as possible. Getting semiconductor designers out of their cubes is not as easy as you think! And I'm happy to give away iPad2s for trip reports so the people who could not attend can still get a feeling of what it is all about.

So here is a day in my life:


I leave Danville (yes I'm Dan from Danville) at 6am because I hate traffic. First stop is Specialty's because (1) they have great WiFi and (2) I just love fresh baked muffins. I do not discriminate here, I love all fresh muffins. Milpitas, Santa Clara, San Jose, I spend a lot of time at Specialty's.

Do not fault my iPhone 4s for the picture quality. I'm a real bad photographer.





This is my favorite mode of transportation. It is a lot like me, lots of miles on it but it still looks good (from a distance). I have driven this car 300k+ miles without a problem, original engine etc.... This car has gotten me to where I am today and the journey is not over. My wife does not like this car but rarely admits it because she knows that when I buy a new car it will be a Porsche and the new ones go MUCH faster than this one. I test drove a 2012 Porsche with the new PDK transmission and I nearly wet myself.







Just down the street from Specialty's is the Santa Clara Convention Center, my absolute favorite convention center of all time because it is easy to get to and has lots of bathrooms.







I really like fountains. This picture is probably the best one that I took so click on it to see the full size. In literature water is re-birth, a new beginning, cleansing. To most of you water is is a chemical substance with the chemical formula H2O.








My first stop was the press room to get my badge, it was not picture worthy. Sometimes they have food there but not this time. When bloggers first appeared at conferences with press badges, the press people did not welcome us with open arms. My badge says media which is a much better description of what I do anyway. I literally spent two days talking to SemiWiki readers. Some arranged meetings in advance, most just introduced themselves. I also had some meetings with vendors, SemiWiki subscribers, and consulting clients of mine. My feet and voice still hurt.




I have not heard the attendance numbers yet but my guess is that it was an up year. It was pretty crowded both Tuesday and Wednesday. Unfortunately I did not get to any of the sessions I had planned on attending. It was more fun talking to people in the halls and at the tables. There will always be detractors but it makes my day when someone says they read SemiWiki. Lots of people ask me for help which I'm glad to do. I make introductions on LinkedIn all the time. Before SemiWiki I had few hundred connections, today I have thousands. I connect to all SemiWiki members, so register for SemiWiki, send me a LinkedIn invitation and let me know what I can do to help!





Apache Design Automation is now: Apache Design, Inc., A Subsidiary of ANSYS, Inc. We have been working with Apache for almost a year now and it has been a great experience. Clearly Apache knows how to develop and great market products. "Low power design" and "Apache" have been top trending searches on SemiWiki since the start and I don't see that changing anytime soon. Kristen Kildebeck is at the desk, we worked together at Virage Logic. Kristen's feedback on SemiWiki has been quite hlepfull, she knows social media.





Mixel is not a SemiWiki subscriber but I write about them anyway. Ashraf is a good guy, Mixel is a good company, so they are always worth mentioning. Mixel demonstrated LVDS SerDes, a high-performance 4-channel IP, supporting up to 1.25 Gbps /channel, providing 5Gbps aggregate bandwidth. SuperD’s 3D product achieved 1stpass silicon success in record time, extending Mixel’s leadership in high-performance mobile PHYs, including LVDS, MDDI, and MIPI IP. They have a great demo! Give Ashraf a call: 408-942-9300





This is Marshall Gingold, we worked together at Avant!. Uniquify is not a SemiWiki subscriber but they are also a great company. Uniquify is a provider of leading edge ASIC turnkey services and IP solutions, focusing on complex multi-million gate System-on-Chip (SoC) designs. The company provides a wide range of services from chip architecture and methodology consulting through physical design implementation and verification. Give Marshall a call: 408-235-8810






Sam Beal (middle guy) is an internet marketing expert and has helped with SemiWiki. Look at Arasan's new website and you will see how good he is. Arasan Chip Systems is a leading provider of Total IP solutions for mobile storage and connectivity applications. Arasan’s high-quality, silicon-proven, Total IP Solutions include digital IP cores, analog PHY interfaces, verification IP, hardware verification kits, protocol analyzers, software stacks and drivers and optional customization services for MIPI, USB, SD, SDIO, MMC/ eMMC, CF, UFS and many other popular standards. I know quite a few people that work at Arasan so I'm biased. Give Ron Mabry (VP Sales, also a friend) a call: (408) 282-1600




This is Tom Simon, I met Tom at Calma years and years and years ago. Lorentz Solution is an EDA company delivering the industry’s first IC-focused Electromagnetic (EM) Design & Verification solution. The company’s product suite, PeakViewTM, provides a fully automatic 3D EM Synthesis and flexible EM Design Verification for users of the CadenceTM custom IC design and circuit simulation environments. Designers regain control over layouts containing sensitive interconnect and passive devices through early design stage detection and repair of EM Integrity design faults before they become a problem. Tom is always good for a free lunch so give him a call: 408-922-0765




Mentor Graphics was there to support our industry. Go Mentor! Mentor has been with SemiWiki since beta. As you have probably read, SemiWiki and Mentor are hosting a Seminar series with ecosystem partners. The first one was Tuesday, I will blog about it when the video goes up. Remember, the camera adds 20 lbs. Mentor is all about collaboration so it is a pleasure to blog about them, as Paul McLellan, Daniel Payne and I have done over the years.






Cadence was also there. Sorry for the fuzzy picture but this is art. What I'm trying to portray here is that I don't actually know what Cadence is really up to. I do know that they just posted a monster quarter so congratulations to them. Notice however that there is no mention of EDA360, may it rest in peace.







This is where I end most days. I do one hour of cardio and 30 minutes of weights listening to Pandora on my iPhone 4s. It is my version of meditation. It gives me time to de-stress, reflect, invoke a level of consciousness that I would not have otherwise. Long life is inherent in my family. My Grandfather, a WWI Veteran, lived to be 102. I was his caregiver and he told me many times that if he knew how long he was going to live he would have taken better care of himself, especially his teeth so don't forget to floss. Hopefully I will not live that long but if I do I will be better prepared.




The most interesting discussions in the halls were about the Synopsys acquisition of Magma, the deal should close on the 17th of this month. Again, I believe that this deal is not only good for Synopsys AND Cadence AND Mentor AND especially Berkeley Design Automation, I believe it is a great deal for Magma. The question that was most frequently asked was: What will happen to the Magma products?

Take a look at: EDA Mergers and Acquisitions Wiki - SemiWiki

Now ask yourself what happened to all of those products?

To be fair, Synopsys is the leading EDA company and they spend a considerable amount of time and money maintaining the company and product brands, and rightly so. So if you think Synopsys will favor a Magma branded product over one of their own you have got to be kidding.

D.A.N.

[Staf_Verhaegen]

Lorentz Solution is an EDA company delivering the industry’s first IC-focused Electromagnetic (EM) Design & Verification solution.

Are you aware of MAGWEL • The Leader in 3D Co-Simulation and Extraction ? They are already doing their work from 2003 on.
Disclaimer: magwel is a spin-off of imec and I was in the TCAD group of imec when prototype of the software was developed.

greets,
Staf.

[SunnyLining]

Fellow SemiWikiers,

With many thanks to the SemiWiki editors, especially D.A.N., I present to you the DesignCon prize for 2012.



Share some experience, hard earned knowledge, rumors, and in general, love of semiconductors and the semiconductor industry, and you, too, can win some SemiWiki-branded loot!



See you in SemiWiki comments!