Recently in conferences Category

That - specifically about EDA, but it applies more widely - was the thorny issue tackled by some brave souls at one of the numerous panels at DAC last week. It's good I wasn't on that panel. My answer to the question tends to be a more or less (usually less) polite version of "To have them get out of my face and let me get on with running a business." In particular, the visa issue they discussed is always a raw nerve for me. It's not just that I myself am an immigrant. It's the fact that my US clients, owned by US shareholders, with lots of US employees, paying US taxes, are crying out for good technical people to make more money for those shareholders, employ more of those US folks, and pay more US taxes, but can't find enough of them because the immigration policies of their own of-the-people-by-the-people-for-the-people government are:

1. Blocking foreign talent who want to come here from doing that and, as a result
2. Scaring the local talent away from engineering (because they think all the jobs are going to India)

Interesting comments on Twittering. And now I'm wondering where, if anywhere, Tumbling fits in.

At the iDesign II session, Cliff Cummings gave a great overview of SystemVerilog implicit port connections. Cliff was, as always, an excellent and enjoyable presenter. And the material was spot on, and current. But at several points during his talk, I felt like someone was scratching fingernails down a blackboard. It wasn't so much Cliff and his presentation. I'd have to say his was one of the best in DAC. Rather it was those subtle wee implications you can pick up if you listen really carefully to a presenter's ad hoc sidebars. Here then are Three Important Things I learned from Cliff (other than the undoubtedly useful details of how implicit port connections work).

I'm not sure I actually attended DAC. That root canal flared up and I needed a visit to an emergency dentist the day before flying out in order to pick up some antibiotics to kill off the nascent abscess. That, and heavy doses of Vicodin and ibuprofen left me a bit dazed as I wandered around the exhibits.

Or maybe that was just the exhibits.

Because as the pain, abscess, and Vicodin wore off (and yes, it was just those things - I didn't even make it to the Denali party), I realized just what DAC is (apart from being a Cortical Homunculus). It's another California Gold Rush. True, we're a bit further south than Coloma, but it feels the same. Excited people, from all corners of the globe, descending on an unsuspecting town in the hope of finding a particularly large nugget of value. And, as with the actual Gold Rush, much of the hope is forlorn. It's not that there's no value to be found. Far from it. But the really big nuggets? Like the one found by Spider Conway in "Pale Rider"? Those are rare events.

Let's do an experiment.

I'm going to ask you to close your eyes. (Not yet, or you won't be able to read the next bit!) OK, you'll close your eyes and focus your attention on your hands for a second or two. Don't move them, or wiggle your fingers; just focus your attention on them. After that, and still keeping your eyes closed, you'll move your attention to your shins. Again, a few seconds of focus. Ready? Go ahead.

OK, done? Now, which felt bigger - your hands or your shins? If you answered "shins", please see a doctor. Otherwise, that effect - the feeling that your hands are bigger than your shins - is due to the fact that your brain "sees" your body differently from the way it appears to our eyes. And if we were to build a physical representation of that brain's-view of the body, we'd get the grotesque little figure known as a Cortical Homunculus.

The size of each part of the distorted body of the Cortical Homunculus represents the number and sensitivity of nerves at that part. The Homunculus is what we'd look like to everyone else if we looked the way we felt. But of course, we don't look like that at all.

DAC (Design Autotomation Conference) is the Main Event in our field. It hasn't quite regained the full spectacle of the glory years of the pre-NASDAQ bubble burst, but it's still the key conference for VLSI design tools and technologies.

Already, the main conference hotel looks full, and bloggers are noting interest. Harry the ASIC guy appears to be going; as does John over at his Semi-Blog. At Verilab, we'll be sending our own SWAT team. I'll be there, along with JL and David Robinson to name but two. JL will be presenting on Monday at the RealIntent booth. And David will be talking about verification planning at the Novas booth.

Please don't hesitate to say hi if you see me or any of the team there. Verilab is, as always, looking for very smart/opinionated/ambitious/energetic/enthusiastic engineers and consultants to join our international team.