Bob Smith

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Robert (Bob) Smith is executive director of the Electronic System Design Alliance. Previously, he was senior vice president of marketing and business development at Uniquify. He began his career in high tech as an analog design engineer working at Hewlett-Packard and has spent more than 30 years in various roles working with startup and early stage companies, including IKOS Systems, Synopsys, LogicVision, and Magma Design Automation. He was a member of the IPO teams that took Synopsys public in 1992 and Magma public in 2001. He received a bachelor of science degree in electrical engineering from U.C. Davis and a master of science degree in electrical engineering from Stanford.

Author's Latest Posts

Collaboration Is Key To Growing Semiconductor Industry
By Bob Smith - 18 Sep, 2025 - Comments: 0

John Kibarian, CEO and co-founder of PDF Solutions and a member of the ESD Alliance (ESDA) Governing Council, will deliver a keynote during the CEO Summit at SEMICON West in October titled “Revolutionizing Semiconductor Collaboration: The Emergence of AI-Driven Industry Platforms.” He recently shared with me a summary of what his talk will cover and his perspective on why collabora... » read more

AI, Product Lifecycle Management, Market Dynamics: Q&A With Jay Vleeschhouwer Of Griffin Securities 
By Bob Smith - 24 Jul, 2025 - Comments: 0

In the world of EDA, Jay Vleeschhouwer, managing director of software research at Griffin Securities, needs no introduction. His presentation on the State of EDA is standing room only at the yearly Design Automation Conference (DAC). He recently agreed to a discussion with me where we talked about AI and EDA, an interesting development with product lifecycle management and global dynamics af... » read more

The State Of The EDA Industry In 2024
By Bob Smith - 21 Nov, 2024 - Comments: 0

In what has become a yearly custom, I recently spoke to Jay Vleeschhouwer, Managing Director of Griffin Securities, for an update on his view of the state of the electronic design automation (EDA) industry. My inquiries were based on his presentation at the 2024 Design Automation Conference (DAC). With his long background as an informed EDA industry follower, I knew it would be an enlightening ... » read more

ESD Alliance And SEMI Efforts To Combat Design Automation Software Piracy
By Bob Smith - 21 Mar, 2024 - Comments: 0

Piracy is a growing concern for all software providers, especially those of us with complex and specialized software, such as chip design automation software that is expensive to develop and maintain. That’s why the Electronic System Design Alliance (ESD Alliance), a SEMI Technology Community, spearheaded an industry joint development effort to develop a server certification protocol that ... » read more

Looking Forward To The New Chip Cycle
By Bob Smith - 19 Oct, 2023 - Comments: 0

Charles Shi, Principal and Senior Analyst at Needham & Company, LLC., remains upbeat about the EDA, IP and services business, or what SEMI refers to as the electronic system design (ESD) ecosystem. I recently spoke with Shi about his talk “Looking Forward to the New Chip Cycle” during the opening of the 2023 Design Automation Conference, collocated in July with SEMICON West in San Fra... » read more

Wall Street View Of EDA Industry
By Bob Smith - 17 Nov, 2022 - Comments: 0

Jay Vleeschhouwer, managing director of Griffin Securities, has followed the electronic design automation (EDA) industry as a leading financial analyst for 25 years and is a popular speaker at the annual Design Automation Conference (DAC). I spoke with Vleeschhouwer after attending his presentation "The State of EDA: A View from Wall Street" at this year’s DAC. Bob Smith: According t... » read more

Mask And Metrology Technology Trends
By Bob Smith - 21 Apr, 2022 - Comments: 0

Aselta Nanographics of Grenoble, France, which produces software for wafer and mask patterning based on e-beam technology for IC manufacturing, along with advanced metrology solutions for scanning electron microscopes, recently became an ESD Alliance member. Adding to its impressive credentials, Aselta is a spin-off of CEA-Leti, the electronics and information technologies research institut... » read more

The Indispensables: The Diverse Electronic System Design Ecosystem
By Bob Smith - 15 Feb, 2022 - Comments: 0

My summer of 2021 reading included a book called “The Indispensables: The Diverse Soldier-Mariners Who Shaped the Country, Formed the Navy, and Rowed Washington Across the Delaware” by Patrick K. O'Donnell. The book told the thrilling and largely forgotten history of the fishermen from Marblehead, Mass., a town 20 miles north of Boston, and their critical role in the Revolutionary War. M... » read more

Where Electronics Begins, And So Much More
By Bob Smith - 13 Feb, 2019 - Comments: 0

When the Electronic Design Automation Consortium (EDAC) first coined the phrase “Where Electronics Begins” 20 years ago, little did we know how true it is, especially today as we move further into the system-centric era. In those days, EDA tools and methodologies were must-haves for chip designers. The system was only a minor consideration for the EDA community as was the semiconductor supp... » read more

DAC’s Passageway To Design Infrastructure
By Bob Smith - 06 Feb, 2018 - Comments: 0

This year's Design Automation Conference will include an "alley" on the exhibit floor, but it won't be a dark, narrow passageway we think of when we hear "alley." Instead, the new Design Infrastructure Alley will be a well-illuminated tribute to the design technology infrastructure, a fundamental element for the creation and design of complex electronic systems and components. The Design Inf... » read more

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