(R)evolution of the 56th Design Automation Conference Technical Program

The Design Automation Conference (DAC), which was founded in 1964, is the longest running and largest conference focused on the design and automation of electronic circuits and systems. And 2019 was a record year in terms of research paper submissions and accepted papers. In fact, this year DAC experienced an impressive 18 percent increase in submissions, as shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1: DAC growth in research paper submissions.

Of this year’s 815 submissions that were stringently reviewed, 202 were accepted for publication. This resulted in an acceptance rate of about 25 percent, which is consistent with previous years.

Yet, what is really exciting about DAC is how it has evolved over the years to address emerging challenges—beginning with its roots in traditional electornic design automation (EDA) and recently expanding into a broad spectrum of research topics associated with chip and system design. While EDA remains the largest topic area in terms of accepted research papers (as shown in Figure 2), about two thirds of this year’s papers focus on many other important aspects of design, such as the design of autonomous systems, security, embedded systems, artificial intelligent architectures, and cyber-physical systems.

Figure 2: DAC 2019 research papers by topic area.

To accommodate this year’s large number of accepted papers, we have organized forty-four technical sessions conducted in five daily parallel tracks. A few highlights from this year’s conference include twenty-two papers (four sessions) on machine-learning and artificial-intelligent architectures. For example, session 31, Emerging Technologies Meet Intelligent Machines, highlights recent advances in emerging device technologies for hardware implementation of neural networks. While session 61, ET meets AI: Emerging Technologies for Accelerating AI, explores emerging memory technologies such as RRAM and 3D die-stacked memory, and novel computing ideas such as stochastic computing to achieve low power consumption while improving performance and maintaining sufficient accuracy.

Other highlights from this year’s conference include twenty-eight papers (five sessions) dedicated to hardware, embedded and cross-layer security. For example, session 41, Hide and Seek: Encryption and Obfuscation, presents methods and tools for quantum-resilient cryptography and piracy-resilient hardware. While session 52, Secure and Private Embedded System Design, focuses on security and privacy of future embedded systems in the context of consumer privacy solutions and secure communication/computation.

In terms of core EDA technical paper highlights, RTL and high-level synthesis continues to be a popular research area with twelve papers (four sessions). For example, session 34, What happens in logic synthesis stays in logic synthesis, presents advances in traditional logic synthesis and emerging applications.

This year, physical design and verification, lithography and DFM continues to be another popular core EDA topic area with sixteen accepted papers (three sessions). For example, session 64, Deep Manufacturing : Design, Data, and Machine Learning, where you will learn how deep learning is opening doors to new approaches for Design for Manufacturing.
For a complete list of technical sessions, please visit this year’s online DAC program and see this year’s (r)evolution for yourself. Advance registration is now open. Register before May 8th for a 25% discounted rate for a full conference pass.

I look forward to seeing you at the 56th Design Automation Conference in Las Vegas June 2-6, 2019.

Harry Foster
56th DAC Technical Program Chair