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Design Automation Conference - Wikiwand

  • ️Wed May 06 1964

The Design Automation Conference (DAC - The chips to systems conference) is an annual event that combines a technical conference with a trade show. It focuses on semiconductor and electronic system design, covering topics such as electronic design automation (EDA), artificial intelligence (AI) hardware and AI-driven algorithms for hardware design, system on chip (SoC) architecture, low-power electronics, design for manufacturability (DFM), hardware security, physical design, IP cores, chiplets, and embedded systems.[1]

In 2024 DAC received 1545 research paper submissions. A technical program committee of 266 domain experts performed a double-blind review, selecting 337 papers (22%) for publication in the proceedings.[2]

DAC also includes an Engineering Track for industry professionals and technical managers. This track addresses front-end design, back-end design, IP, and embedded systems and software. Submissions to the Engineering Track undergo a separate peer-review process conducted by a dedicated committee.[3]

The trade show features approximately 100 companies in the field of design automation such as Cadence Design Systems, Synopsys, Siemens EDA and Ansys.

The DAC Young Fellows Program[4] is an initiative aimed at supporting and inspiring graduate students and early-career researchers. The program provides approximately 150 participants with mentorship, travel grants, networking opportunities, and access to conference sessions, fostering their professional growth and encouraging engagement with the DAC community.

The Ph.D. Forum at DAC is a poster session for Ph.D. students to present and discuss their dissertation research with the EDA community.

HACK@DAC is a hardware security challenge contest for finding and exploiting security-critical vulnerabilities in hardware and firmware.

DAC is organized by hundreds of volunteer committee members from industry and academia. The conference is sponsored by two professional societies:[5]

The conference is usually held in June.

DAC is the oldest and largest conference in EDA, starting in 1964.[6] It grew out of the SHARE ("Society to Help Avoid Redundant Effort") design automation workshop. Its originators Marie Pistilli and Pasquale (Pat) Pistilli were honored by the EDA community. Pat received the highest honor in EDA industry, the Phil Kaufman Award, for this effort, and Marie was honored by having an award established in her name, the Marie Pistilli Award.[7]

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Marie and Pat Pistilli at DAC in 2000

Up until the mid-'70s, DAC had sessions on all types of design automation, including mechanical and architectural. After that, for all intents and purposes, the focus shifted to electronic design.[8] Currently, the topics at DAC also include embedded systems, autonomous systems, Artificial Intelligence hardware, hardware security, and Intellectual Property.

Also until the mid-'70s, DAC was strictly a technical conference. Then a few companies started to request space to show their products, and within a few years, the trade show portion of DAC became the main focus of the event. The first commercial DAC was held in June 1984. As a rough metric of the importance of the trade show portion, about 6,300 people attended DAC in 2018, whereas ICCAD, at least as strong technically but with no trade show, drew perhaps a tenth as many attendees.

The table below shows the edition, year, location, and the general chair of recent DAC events.[9]

Key
Denotes future event

More information Edition, Year ...

EditionYearLocationConference centerGeneral chair
26th1989Las Vegas, NevadaLas Vegas Convention CenterDon Thomas
27th1990Orlando, FloridaOrange County Convention CenterRichard Smith
28th1991San Francisco, CaliforniaMoscone CenterA. Richard Newton
29th1992Anaheim, CaliforniaAnaheim Convention CenterDaniel Schweikert
30th1993Dallas, TexasKay Bailey Hutchison Convention CenterAlfred Dunlop
31st1994San Diego, CaliforniaSan Diego Convention CenterMichael Lorenzetti
32nd1995San Francisco, CaliforniaMoscone CenterBryan Preas
33rd1996Las Vegas, NevadaLas Vegas Convention CenterThomas Pennino
34th1997Anaheim, CaliforniaAnaheim Convention CenterEllen Yoffa
35th1998San Francisco, CaliforniaMoscone CenterBasant Chawla
36th1999New Orleans, LouisianaNew Orleans Morial Convention CenterMary Jane Irwin
37th2000Los Angeles, CaliforniaLos Angeles Convention CenterGiovanni De Micheli
38th2001Las Vegas, NevadaLas Vegas Convention CenterJan M. Rabaey
39th2002New Orleans, LouisianaNew Orleans Morial Convention CenterBryan Ackland
40th2003Anaheim, CaliforniaAnaheim Convention CenterIan Getreu
41st2004San Diego, CaliforniaSan Diego Convention CenterSharad Malik
42nd2005Anaheim, CaliforniaAnaheim Convention CenterWilliam H. Joyner Jr.
43rd2006San Francisco, CaliforniaMoscone CenterEllen Sentovich
44th2007San Diego, CaliforniaSan Diego Convention CenterSteven Levitan
45th2008Anaheim, CaliforniaAnaheim Convention CenterLimor Fix
46th2009San Francisco, CaliforniaMoscone CenterAndrew Kahng
47th2010Anaheim, CaliforniaAnaheim Convention CenterSachin Sapatnekar
48th2011San Diego, CaliforniaSan Diego Convention CenterLeon Stok
49th[10]2012San Francisco, CaliforniaMoscone CenterPatrick Groeneveld
50th2013Austin, TexasAustin Convention CenterYervant Zorian
51st2014San Francisco, CaliforniaMoscone CenterSoha Hassoun
52nd2015San Francisco, CaliforniaMoscone CenterAnne Cirkel
53rd2016Austin, TexasAustin Convention CenterChuck Alpert
54th2017Austin, TexasAustin Convention CenterMac McNamara
55th2018San Francisco, CaliforniaMoscone CenterXiaobo Sharon Hu
56th2019Las Vegas, NevadaLas Vegas Convention CenterRob Aitken
57th2020Virtual due to COVID-19Zhuo Li
58th[11]2021San Francisco, CaliforniaMoscone CenterHarry Foster
59th[12]2022San Francisco, CaliforniaMoscone CenterRob Oshana
60th[13]2023San Francisco, CaliforniaMoscone CenterJörg Henkel
61st[14]2024San Francisco, CaliforniaMoscone CenterVivek De
62nd2025San Francisco, CaliforniaMoscone Center Helen Li
63rd2026Long Beach, CaliforniaLong Beach Convention CenterRenu Mehra

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    The cover of the 25th DAC Proceedings (1988).[15]

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    The Executive Committee of the 37th DAC in June 2000. Sitting in the bottom row are Lee Wood, David Blaauw, Mary Jane Irwin, Giovanni De Micheli, Jan Rabaey, Ellen Yoffa, Randal Bryant, and Marie R. Pistilli.

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    Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak delivered the keynote address at the 48th DAC in 2011.

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    25 past DAC chairs at the 50th DAC celebration in Austin, June 6th, 2013.

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    The 59th DAC was at Moscone West, San Francisco, July 2022.

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    The poster session of the DAC Young Fellows at the 61st DAC in Moscone West, July 2024.

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    Jim Keller delivering his keynote at the 61st DAC in 2024.