Power Conference

By Barry Pangrle
Big 10, ACC, SEC, Big 12, Pac 10? Well, if you’re thinking of universities that’s a start in the right direction (and there will be a quiz at the end of this blog). If you reside outside of the U.S., I apologize for the local reference.

When organizing any technical conference, there’s always a challenge in striking a balance between presenting research that may have an impact horizon that’s many years out and material that designers and engineers can use today. The 16th ACM/IEEE International Symposium on Low Power Electronics and Design (a.k.a. ISLPED) is being held in Austin, TX on Aug. 18-20, and the organizing committee has worked hard to put together a program with presentations on future directions while mixing in new results that can have an immediate impact.

Beyond the expected sessions on design optimization for low power and low-power microprocessors there are sessions covering a broad range of power topics from energy harvesting and conversion systems to alternative memory and emerging devices. Industry luminaries like Raj Jammy (Sematech), Ajith Amerasekera (TI Kilby Research Labs) and Kevin Nowka (IBM Research-Austin) will be giving keynote talks on emerging low power technologies, ultra-low-power electronics, and technology variability and uncertainty, respectively. Jan Rabaey (UC Berkeley), who was instrumental in getting ISLPED going in its early days, will be giving a talk about energy-efficiency in the post-Moore era.

Conferences provide an opportunity for people to network and ISLPED is in its 16th year of providing a venue for people in the low-power community to meet and interact. For the hiring managers out there that are looking for bright new talent, ISLPED presents an excellent chance to meet and talk with students from across the U.S. and the world. For me, I’m sure it will spark many ideas that you’ll read about in future columns here. If you’re in Austin and your company is one of the corporate supporters (Intel, ARM, TI, Mentor Graphics, Synopsys, AMD and IBM) you might be able to use one of the company’s complimentary registrations and go for “free.” I hope to have a chance to see you in Austin, and if you’re there please stop and say hello. I’d very much like to hear from you.

Extra Credit:
1) How many universities are there in the Big 10 conference?
2) How many universities are there in the Big 12 conference?

Yes, these are trick questions. Answers to appear in next month’s blog.

–Barry Pangrle is a solutions architect for low-power design and verification at Mentor Graphics.