One of the highlights of last month’s SEMICON Taiwan for the ESD Alliance was our Industry Meeting, a well-attended gathering and a great cross-section of the semiconductor industry, including EDA, IP, packaging, fabless and academia. Remarkably, not all attendees came from companies or organizations currently members of SEMI or the ESD Alliance, though many were. All were interested in learning more about who we are and what we do. 
I kicked off the session with an overview of the ESD Alliance and our history that goes back to 1989 when we were known as the EDA Consortium, aka EDAC. I spent a few minutes detailing why EDAC changed its name to the Electronic System Design (ESD) Alliance in 2016 and then became and SEMI Strategic Association Partner in 2018. Those moves significantly broadened EDAC’s charter from providing EDA companies with a forum to address cross-industry issues and promote the industry to our goal to serve a larger design ecosystem. We consider that ecosystem to now include semiconductor IP, embedded software, advanced packaging for system scaling and service companies that provide design know-how and resources. My talk concluded with a look at our benefits and why companies should consider joining both organizations.
Robert Li, president of Synopsys Taiwan, took the stage and moderated a lively discussion among an enthusiastic crowd of attendees. In going around the room, it was evident everyone had a unique perspective to share that enhanced our understanding of the needs and directions of this important region in the global semiconductor and electronic product market.
