Week 48: One Week Left For Early Registration

I have to admit, writing the weekly blog has made the countdown to DAC a lot more apparent than it would have been otherwise. When I began blogging last year, I thought the watched-pot-never-boils maxim might apply, that time would drag and I’d run out of things to say months before the opening keynote. Instead, I’m fairly stunned to have just four more blogs to write until “my DAC year” will be over. More importantly, you have only one week left to take advantage of early registration rates and receive a 25% discount. The deadline is May 12.

This year’s conference program is once again organized around the standard topics of EDA, Embedded Systems and Software, Automotive, Security and Design. Like most conferences, each year DAC makes more and more material available after the conference online, not only including the proceedings but also videos of various keynotes and other presentations. See for example last year’s dual keynote on smart autos featuring MathWorks’ Jim Tung and Ford’s James Buczkowski. (And while you’re at it, why not start following Buczkowski on Twitter? Once DAC keynoter, always someone worth watching!)

However, despite living in a time-shifted, cord-cutting world, what holds true for most big live events certainly applies to DAC as well. Namely, there is absolutely no substitute for attending DAC in person. The main reason of course is for all the networking, however it bears mentioning that lots of great content, including most panel discussions, will be presented in real-time live discussions and won’t be archived. Among the panel topics:

• Design for hardware security: Can you make cents of it?
• Does DFM now stand for “Don’t forget about me?
• Are you ready for the rigors of automotive reliability?
• Scalable verification: Evolution or Revolution?
• The long and winding road to IoT connectivity: Are we there yet?

There’s been much written in recent years about the fact that true creativity rarely is the result of a lone genius and instead often comes from different points of view bumping into each other and generating sparks. While I can’t promise Lennon/McCarthy-type music emanating from the Moscone microphones, I can assure you lively panel discussions giving you insights into a whole variety of perspectives. The formula that works best is to have true domain experts and good moderators, and we are providing both. Our panelists and moderators represent an interesting mix of academic researchers and industry luminaries from companies like ARM, Cisco, Freescale, NVIDIA and Qualcomm to name just a few. All panel sessions are 90 minutes long and so there is ample time for you to ask questions and create your own sparks.

Browse the program, check out the details for panels, special sessions, tutorials workshops, and collocated events, and make sure to register before May 12 so you get the discount!

As to these short updates, I’m getting so used to blogging about DAC, I may just continue — well, at least throughout the DAC week. Would you be interested in reading a daily DAC blog once the conference begins? And in general, how can we best facilitate the exchanges of DAC news, opinion and chatter on various social media channels next month once the real fun begins?