For many people, going to DAC is like going to a High School Reunion. There are many familiar faces you can't quite put a name to, and other faces belonging to perfect strangers who call you by name and seem to know who you are. Of course, there are also lots of good friends at DAC whose names and faces you do remember – and that's the best!

The other reason DAC's like a High School Reunion? Every year, the population seems to get older, with more people in the "Aging Demographic" bucket ...

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House of Glues ...

Although the 2010 Denali Cadence Party was held at the House of Blues on June 14th at this year's Design Automation Conference in Anaheim, DAC 2010 wasn't really about The Blues.

Instead, #47DAC was about The Glues – the glues that bind the ecosystem together, including those who ...

* Develop the EDA Tools
* Provide the IP
* Design the Hardware, Packages & Boards
* Develop the Software
* Run the Foundries
* Do the Test and Packaging
* Integrate the Software
* Assemble the System
* Manage the Product Launch, Distribution & Product Life Cycle
* Sniff out the next Market Opportunity & Translate it into Product Specs
* Handle the PR & Marketing
* Teach at the Universities
* Learn at the Universities
* Manage the Show

It's a complex multi-node network (not nearly as neatly segmented as this list would imply), all held together by a messy collection of glues. And this year in Anaheim at #47DAC, the majority the talk was about those glues ...

The Good Glues – promoting cooperation, collaboration, partnering, and innovation – that loosely (or more firmly) bind together a host of different nodes in the multi-node network, and ...

The Bad Glues – harder to detect and never openly acknowledged – that say if you're living at one node in the multi-node network, you've got to stay there forever. You're never going to be allowed to change because: a) People who come to DAC don't really like change, and b) People say they've already staked a claim to that node, and you are NOT welcome.

Another way of describing The Bad Glues? They're on par with the gum you get on your shoe at the parking lot in the grocery store. Somebody else put the gum there, and now it's your problem to deal with.

Which brings us to John Bruggeman and EDA360, and not necessarily in that order. Bruggeman & Co. are trying to change Cadence into something else (not the first time, of course, this conjuring trick's been tried at good'ol CDNS), but the industry's saying:

Raspberries to you, Bruggeman. Cadence has to be what it's always been, and you're not allowed to change that. And EDA360? Nothing new there either, Bruggeman. We'd already thought of all of that and you can't own it. No matter how much bravado & brimstone you throw at it.

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Sunday: June 13th ...

Although the Design Automation Conference officially opened on Monday, June 14th, things really got underway on Sunday evening with the annual EDAC Reception and Gary Smith on EDA Industry Update taking place in quick succession at the Hilton Hotel next to the Anaheim Convention Center.

There were hundreds of people on hand for both events in adjoining ballrooms, plenty of food, wine, beer, and conviviality. There were also a lot of ideas and themes being bandied about amidst the many people in attendance, and public & off-the-record snips and snaps from people well lubricated and nervous/agitated about the potential for success/ROI/failure over the next several days.

Here’s an Editor’s Notebook of a few of them ...

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