1205Blog_filler.doc

Hi Elizabeth and Ryan. Please insert these tidbits of content – as space allows – into the white space that follows every Editorial Feature. For the Dec05-Jan-06 issue of the magazine, there should be enough room at the end of the first three “Editorial Features.

Here’s how I envision this pieces will look:

Title

Space

Text, ending in three dots (…) as required to fit

Space

Ending text that points to website

Also, please enclose this content in a shaded box, so readers know it’s not part of the editorial features. Call me with questions (503-614-1082). Cheers. – John

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Must be the Holidays - EDA & Semi working together

I attended the joint SI2-Semi DFM workshop in San Jose on 12/13/05 and was really surprised. Based on the lineup of all the usual suspects, it looked like it was going to be either (1) another useless love fest professing the virtues of the lack of a business model for all lost EDA tools (now calling themselves DFM tool supplier marketplace) or (2) a re-enactment of one of the great world wars where the sides are split as EDA trying to steal manufacturing dominance from the Semiconductor companies where it has been traditionally held.

To read this Pallab’s blog, go to

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The Evolution of the Design Chain

People have bee talking about evolution in design for a number of years and design techniques slowly change. At this point in time, there are two distinct design paths that have been created or evolved for IC. The first technique is the traditional full custom design flow where all the considerations of manufacturing and functionality are taken into account in parallel and solved uniquely for an optimal situation. This is what is generally found in standard products and smaller custom products today. The second track is called SOC and is derived from the tradition systems build world which uses validated components to do multiple functions in a common area. In SOC design, these have changed from being stand alone chips to being IP blocks.

To read this Pallab’s blog, go to

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Amazing but True - An ESL tool that actually performs an engineering task

I had the opportunity recently to meet with John Emmitt of Carbon Design Systems. Whereas I spend most of my time in the world of physical design and manufacturing, rather than architectural electronic design I was very pleasantly surprised by the meeting.

My recent experiences with ESL and ESL EDA companies is their fascination with continuing the on-going Gartner inspired “holy grail savior for EDA” and just perpetuating the vaporware and story rather than build a business model or tools people can use. The folks at Carbon took a different approach - they actually made a PRODUCT that SOLVES a PROBLEM. I was at first, amazed at this, and secondly - the product is appropriately targeted and positioned for use by companies expanding existing product lines into new products targeted for high volume applications.

To read this Pallab’s blog, go to

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ci-Fi's Kevin J. Anderson Talks to Chip Design

Last weekend, I attended OryCon 27, billed as "Portland, Oregon's Premier Science Fiction Convention." My son and I were dressed as Jedi, both for fun and to look as inconspicuous as possible. If you've ever attended a Sci-Fi conference, you'll know what I mean.

To read this John’s blog, go to