The entire program for DAC is now live here. Registration is now open here. It is just a little over two months to go. I'll blog later about some of the special sessions and tracks at this years DAC, some because it is looking back over the last 50 years and some because it is in Austin for the first time. But go and sign up (exhibitor registration is also open).

Somebody pointed out this fascinating teardown (sorry, can't remember who it was. Oops). It is a teardown of a 1986 Psion II organiser, a 1996 Palm Pilot 5000 (back when they were still US robotics and before Pilot pens made them drop the Pilot name) and then an HP iPaq 5550. It is interesting to watch the level of integration increase and the density of the circuit boards really go down as IC packaging technology changes (these are all QFP chips I think). It is amazing how much stuff we integrate on to a modern SoC rather than requiring separate backup chips.

Mike Demler has an interesting article using the 50th DAC (or, as he pedantically points out, the 49th anniversary of the first DAC) as a reason to look back at what are the most significant development in the history of EDA. GDS, Spice, HDL. Go read the whole article to find out his other choices.

I just recently blogged about the CEO panel which had Simon Segars of ARM on it. He was sort of an impostor since he wasn't actually the CEO of ARM. But that is all about to change. ARM announced yesterday that Warren East, the CEO, would be retiring at the end of June. The new CEO will be Simon, currently President of ARM and the de facto #2 guy. Currently Simon is based in the US and I don't know if he plans to return to Britain or not. But he will live what will inevitably be a lifestyle that involves crossing the Atlantic a lot, no matter which side he picks.

It is interesting that ARM will have a new CEO this year since their big rival in the microprocessor business, Intel, will also have one. Intel announced that Otellini will be stepping down in May, but they have a search going on for the successor.

Yesterday evening was the annual EDAC CEO forecast meeting. Actually it is not really a forecast meeting any more, more a sort of CEO response to some survey questions asked of EDAC members. Rich Valera of Needham moderated with Lip-Bu, Aart and Wally, along with Simon Segars representing the IP arm of the business and Raul Camposano representing startup companies.

I’m not going to try and cover everything, just pick and choose things that I found interesting.

EDAC's next Hogan Emerging companies features Joe Costello on the subject of Communicating a Compelling Company Story. It is May 1st at (surprise) Cadence. Anyone who saw Joe's DAC keynote on a similar topic a few years ago will never forget it. The event is sure to sell out so register as soon as you can. Details, including a link to registration, are here.