Connecting with the EDA Consortium

Welcome to the first EDAC Connected blog post, a blog I intend to update monthly with news on happenings within the EDA Consortium (EDAC) organization.

In my role as Executive Director of EDAC, my priorities are to ensure that we are delivering benefits and relevance to our members and to promote the value and impact that the EDA, IP, Embedded and related vendors have on the worldwide semiconductor industry. Of course, I’m also focused on encouraging the entire industry to join and participate with us.

We have some activities you may be familiar with, but plenty that you may not know about –– many done behind the scenes and that’s about to change. Some of the EDAC committees that have toiled away in relative obscurity and known only by a small handful of industry insiders are about to become much better known, including License Management and Anti-Piracy (LMA), Interoperability and Export Compliance. All are immensely important to the health and vitality of our industry.

I joined EDAC several months ago and have been welcomed enthusiastically by everyone I’ve met from within the semiconductor, EDA and IP industry. This is an industry I know well and have worked in for a long time, including stints at Synopsys, LogicVision and Magma at certain stages of my career. Most recently, I worked for an IP supplier. And, while I know much about our industry, EDAC and all its benefits are new to me. The role of executive director of a non-profit industry consortium is one I’ve never tackled before but consider myself well equipped to take on based on my background. Nonetheless, it’s a great opportunity and one that I hope you’ll help me with. I’m working with a solid team of experienced professionals and we’re looking for volunteers to serve on a variety of committees.

EDAC has a busy fall line-up of events. Earlier this month, we announced that Dr. Walden Rhines, chairman and CEO of Mentor Graphics, is the recipient of this year’s Phil Kaufman Award, presented jointly by EDAC and the IEEE Council on EDA (CEDA). The awards dinner will be held Thursday, November 12, at the Fourth Street Summit in San Jose, Calif. More details and registration information will be coming shortly.

Si2’s 19th Si2Con is fast approaching and I’m pleased to report I’m giving a keynote address titled, “China –– New Center of the Semiconductor Universe (?),” Tuesday, October 6, at 1:30 p.m. My talk will include trends that have emerged from the Market Statistics Service (MSS) data collected and reported by EDAC. I’ll show overall growth rates in the industry and which segments show the most promise for continued growth as well as share some of my experiences in starting up a technical sales operation in China. We’ll be at the Biltmore Hotel in Santa Clara, Calif. To learn more about Si2Con’s agenda and registration information, go to http://bit.ly/1JXVAOw. If you’re planning to be at Si2Con, please introduce yourself. I look forward to meeting you and getting your insights about the industry.

Finally, I’m pleased to be able to tell you about the latest Emerging Companies Patent Series panel, “Patents and Patent Litigation: Develop, Strengthen, and Protect Your Intellectual Property,” to be held Thursday, October 29, from 6-9 p.m.

Thanks to the Emerging Companies Committee Chair Steve Pollock, Sam Liccardo, Mayor of San Jose, and John Cabeca, Director of the Silicon Valley United States Patent Office, will kick off the event. EDAC members and guests will help them celebrate the opening of the new Silicon Valley United States Patent Office. Panelists will discuss how to protect innovation and invention through patent procurement and enforcement. More information will be available in the coming weeks. It is open to all EDAC member companies. Non-EDAC members are welcome to attend if space is available.

I’m pleased to be the new EDA Consortium Executive Director and welcome your input.

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 1st, 2015 at 2:23 pm. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.