DVCon happens early in the year each year in Silicon Valley. It's a small, focused conference that's ostensibly built around design and verification. For a number of years, however, a high-profile EDA executive panel has been an additional highlight of the conference. Moderated for many years by John Cooley, this year I was moderator. The DVCon Committee gave me the freedom and latitude to propose the topic and pick the panelists.

The topic I chose, given the current turmoil in the global economy, was EDA: Dead or Alive? The panelists I invited to appear at the February 25th event are all CEO's, Presidents, and/or General Managers of EDA Companies. Not surprisingly, all of them gave a spirited and unequivocal response to the panel topic: EDA is definitely alive, because it’s the single most important pre-requisite for progress in electronics. The electronics industry will never die and, therefore, neither will EDA.

Of course, these EDA executives all have to say things are vibrant in the industry. They're all responsible, in one way or another, for motivating their teams and keeping the lights on, day in and day out. However, there's actually a lot more to leading the EDA industry forward than just cheering employees on, and saying everything is Grrrreat! – particularly in these difficult weeks and months of the deepest downturn we've seen in decades. I know that and the panelists know it.

So, in the weeks after the event, I spoke individually at length with all seven panelists to follow up on various topics discussed at the DVCon panel. The spirit of those seven conversations is captured in seven articles here in EDA Confidential. The conversations are remarkable.

These people are intelligent, thoughtful, and complex. The idea that a brief 90-minute panel, ala DVCon, actually reflects their abilities or understanding of the industry is nonsense. Not a single one of these panelists was "done justice" at DVCon 2009. I hope these articles make up for that circumstance.

Copyright (c) 2009, Peggy Aycinena. All rights reserved.