Editor's Note: Walden Rhines, Chairman & CEO at Mentor Graphics Corp. and Chairman of the Electronic Design Automation Consortium, has agreed (through his staff) to allow the following list to be published here in EDA Confidential.

Dr. Rhines presented this list last week at the annual Dataquest Kick-off Event in Anaheim on the opening night of DAC 2005 – Sunday, June 12th. The list was Dr. Rhines' way of demonstrating to the SRO crowd in attendance that evening that the EDA industry is finally on the up-swing.

For those lucky enough to attend the Sunday evening Dataquest Event, you are already familiar with this list. However, for those of you who had to miss the presentation – this list is a must read. It's:

• terse, but well thought through.
• succinct, but rich with nuance.
• timely, yet somehow strangely timeless.

We here at EDA Confidential are grateful for the opportunity to publish this list for the further edification of the entire EDA community.

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* No. 10. – Investment analysts Bill Frerichs and Jennifer Jordan decide they'll make more money working for EDA companies than analyzing our stocks.

* No. 9. – Several Intel executives decide that EDA is more promising than semiconductors.

* No. 8. – No EDA CEOs have been arrested in the last year.

* No. 7. – The semiconductor industry is once again talking about crossing the $300B mark. …

          For the fifth time!

* No. 6. – After 15 years of forecasts, there was actual ESL revenue in 2004.

* No. 5 – The price of EDA software has doubled... In Shanghai CD shops.

* No. 4. – John Cooley is becoming the Michael Moore of EDA.

* No. 3 – EDAC Marketing Statistics Reports show continued growth...

          Thanks to the addition of IP...

          Next year we add theme parks!

* No. 2 – Leading EDA companies move to nanometer DAC booths

* No. 1. – Gary Smith of Dataquest teams with Cadence on plan to launch new product "Baby Ensemble 1.0"

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Additional Note: If any of the references on the list seem obscure or difficult to track, please contact the EDAC offices for further clarification. You can reach them at info@edac.org

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June 12, 2005

Mentor Graphics is an EDA company which makes electronic design automation software.

Copyright (c) 2005, Dr. Walden C. Rhines et al.
All rights reserved.