43rd Design Automation Conference (DAC) Previews Technical Program Highlights; Themes Focus on Design Challenges for Next-Generation Multimedia, Games and Entertainment Applications.

BOULDER, Colo. -- The Design Automation Conference (DAC), the electronic design automation (EDA) industry's premier event, today announced program highlights for the 43rd DAC, to be held July 24-28, 2006, at the Moscone Center in San Francisco. This year's technical program was selected from the record number of 865 regular paper submissions, 78 panel submissions and 18 tutorial proposals DAC received. The result will be a full and varied program of timely technical and business-related sessions that will appeal to the interests of the more than 10,000 attendees of this annual event. The full program schedule will be available on the DAC Web site on May 8.

"Once again, we are excited by the advanced developments, research, and insights that the global design automation community has offered for this year's conference," said Ellen Sentovich, 43rd DAC general chair. "This year's program committee has ensured that the conference will provide high-quality presentations of interest to academics, researchers, developers, designers, managers, and executives in EDA, chip, and electronics companies."

This year's DAC has adopted a special theme focusing on multimedia, games and entertainment, which will offer attendees and exhibitors an opportunity to participate in a series of technical sessions, DAC pavilion events and special activities on the exhibit floor. These sessions will highlight the design of the latest generation of multimedia, gaming and entertainment systems. Throughout the week, with a concentration on Wednesday, leading technology providers and consumer electronics manufacturers will be represented in the panel discussions and technical sessions. Highlights will include discussions of the issues faced by iPod and the Cell processor, and the technology requirements for 3-D graphics in feature films.

With 13 tutorials, four workshops, 18 DAC Pavilion presentations and more than 60 technical sessions, the 43rd DAC's technical program will offer more than 200 technical papers and presentations in the following ten tracks: Management; System-Level and Embedded Systems Design; Low Power and Thermal; Analog and Circuit; Interconnect, Reliability and DFM; Verification and Test; Synthesis and FPGA; Physical Design; "Beyond the Die"; and New and Emerging Technologies.

The System-Level and Embedded track saw the largest growth in the number of submissions in 2006, with several papers exploring the increased use of processors in SoC designs, issues of on-chip interconnect and communications-centric/network-on-chip design.

Six full-day tutorials are planned, including two on Monday, July 24, and four on Friday, July 28. Topics presented range from ESL, SystemVerilog, DFM, variability, chip and package co-design, and techniques for design error diagnosis, silicon debug and defect diagnosis.

Seven vendor-presented hands-on tutorials are scheduled throughout the conference, covering a variety of approaches to low-power design methods and tools.

For the third year in a row, DAC will offer the popular Management Day on Tuesday, July 25, featuring a series of business and technology sessions designed to offer mid- and senior-level managers a forum for sharing information on key decision-making processes as well as current technology trends. It will include a panel discussion on the fabless model, a session on the choice of flows and implementation technologies, and a second session on the design of graphics, entertainment and wireless products. In addition, registration in the Management Day includes the EDA Business Forum Luncheon and Management Day cocktail party to give attendees the opportunity to network with their peers in the industry.

A full roster of panels and presentations is once again planned for the DAC Pavilion on the Exhibit Floor, open for all attendees. Gary Smith, chief analyst with Gartner Dataquest, will continue the tradition of opening the pavilion program on Monday, July 24, with his presentation on EDA trends and "What's Hot at DAC." The Pavilion Sessions will also include business focused discussions, an "Ask the CTO" panel, the annual presentation of the Women in EDA Achievement Award and this year's DAC Student Design Contest Winners.

Registration

Advance conference registration will open on May 8. To register for DAC visit http://www.dac.com or call 800-321-4573 in the U.S. to request registration materials. The advance conference registration discount deadline is June 26.

About DAC

DAC is the premier forum for the electronic design industry to exchange information on products, methodologies and processes. Attended by more than 10,000 developers, designers, researchers, managers and engineers from leading electronics companies and universities around the world, DAC includes more than 240 exhibitors and offers a robust technical program covering the electronics industry's hottest trends to bring people to the event.

The conference is sponsored by the Association for Computing Machinery's Special Interest Group on Design Automation (ACM/SIGDA), the Circuits and Systems Society and Computer Aided Network Design Technical Committee of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE/CASS/CANDE), and the Electronic Design Automation Consortium (EDA Consortium). More details about DAC are available at: www.dac.com.