Anyone who knows Dean Drako recognizes his innovative spirit and entrepreneurial mindset. He aimed those talents to EDA in the late 1980s when he started Design Acceleration (now Cadence) and then founded IC Manage in 2002 before moving on to security with Barracuda Networks and Eagle Eye. Dean remains firmly in charge today as CEO of both IC Manage and Eagle Eye.

Not content with juggling the responsibilities of those two entrepreneurial endeavors, Dean and Shiv Sikand (also executive vice president at IC Manage) founded Drako Motors, an American luxury sports car manufacturer. Drako Motors’ much sought-after, limited-production electric supercars deliver high performance with maximum control and safety on road and track.

Now’s your chance to see the Drako Dragon, a powerful 2,000-horsepower quad motor hyper-luxury electric SUV with a top speed of 206 mph, launched late last year. I take great pleasure in inviting you to an interactive networking event featuring Drako Dragon, on display during a “Beer and Brats BBQ” networking reception.

The event, sponsored by the Electronic System Design (ESD) Alliance, a SEMI Strategic Technology Community, will be held Wednesday, October 18, at SEMI Headquarters in Milpitas, Calif., in conjunction with a meeting being held by SEMI’s Global Automotive Advisory Council (GAAC). GAAC’s mission is to bring the automotive electronics supply chain together to foster connection and collaboration.

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Early September has been a time of announcements from the ESD Alliance, a SEMI Technology Community.

First, we congratulate Dr. Lawrence Pileggi, Coraluppi Head and Tanoto Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University, as the 2023 Phil Kaufman Award for distinguished contributions to Electronic System Design (ESD). The annual award, given by the ESD Alliance and IEEE’s Council on Electronic Design Automation (CEDA), will be presented at the Phil Kaufman Award ceremony and dinner in Q1 2024. Details to follow.

Our other news came by way of SEMI. It announced that it will license the new SEMI Server Certification Protocol to combat software piracy starting in Q3. We managed the protocol joint development program with Cadence, Siemens EDA and Synopsys participating in the development effort. The protocol was reviewed and approved by an independent group of semiconductor companies that rely on EDA tools in their business operations.

With piracy costing the software industry an estimated billions of dollars annually, the protocol will help prevent unauthorized access to licensed software products by assigning a unique identifier to each customer license server to assure software access can only be granted by authorized servers.

To learn more, join us for a webinar about the SEMI License Server Certification Protocol and how it can be deployed It will be held Wednesday, September 27, from 10-11:30am PDT and registration is free of charge.

About Dr. Lawrence Pileggi

Dr. Pileggi is this year’s Phil Kaufman Award recipient for his pioneering contributions to circuit simulation and optimization that enable the industry to address the challenge of interconnect delay dominated designs. He is also recognized for his innovations in Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) education.

Prior to his current role at Carnegie Mellon University, Dr. Pileggi held positions at Westinghouse Research and Development and the University of Texas at Austin. He has consulted for various semiconductor and EDA companies and co-founded Fabbrix Inc., Extreme DA, and Pearl Street Technologies. His research interests include various aspects of digital and analog integrated circuit design and simulation, optimization, and modeling of electric power systems.

Dr. Pileggi has received numerous awards, including the ACM/IEEE A. Richard Newton Technical Impact Award in Electronic Design Automation in 2011 and the 2015 Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) University Researcher Award.

He co-authored Electronic Circuit and System Simulation Methods, McGraw-Hill, 1995 and IC Interconnect Analysis, Kluwer, 2002, has published over 400 conference and journal papers, and holds 40 U.S. patents. He is a fellow of the IEEE.

Dr. Pileggi received his Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering and a Master of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Pittsburgh and his Ph.D. from Carnegie Mellon University.

About the Phil Kaufman Award

The Phil Kaufman Award honors individuals who have had a demonstrable impact on the field of electronic system design through technology innovations, education/mentoring, or business or industry leadership. The award was established as a tribute to Phil Kaufman, the late industry pioneer who turned innovative technologies into commercial businesses that have benefited electronic designers. The 2022 recipient was Dr. Giovanni de Micheli, Professor and Director of the Institute of Electrical Engineering and of the Integrated Systems Centre at EPF Lausanne, Switzerland.

About The ESD Alliance

The ESD Alliance, a SEMI Technology Community, represents members in the electronic system and semiconductor design ecosystem as the marketing advocate and address economic issues affecting the entire industry. We act as the central voice to communicate and promote the value of the semiconductor design ecosystem as a vital component of the global electronics industry.

Companies that are already SEMI members, can become members of the ESD Alliance by submitting a short application with no extra fee. Companies not SEMI members can apply at the same time to join the ESD Alliance. Again, no extra fee is associated with being a part of the ESD Alliance. Contact me at Bob Smith at bsmith@semi.org with questions.

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