1007CD_new-NewsSection.doc
@Sectionhead: In the News
@subhead: IMEC Celebrates the Future of Research
@text: While many companies are cutting their R&D budgets to protect the short-term bottom line, events in Leuven, Belgium, offer a refreshing change. The Interuniversity Microelectronics Center (IMEC) is a consortium that shares the risks and rewards of advanced research. IMEC’s mission is to develop the microelectronics, nanotechnology, and design methodologies that the industry will need in the next three to ten years. It has become one of the largest independent R&D organizations in the world with a staff of 1550 from 50 nations.
At this year’s ARRM2007 Press Review, journalists and editors from around the world were offered a peek at recent achievements and a chance to question program leaders and researchers (see Figure 1). Presenters included IMEC’s president, Gilbert Declerck, and COO Luc Van den hove (see Figure 2). They spoke about the state of IMEC’s unique research models as well as its response to the changing semiconductor landscape. For example, more than 100 companies from the entire semiconductor food chain are sharing the cost of researching CMOS scaling. In the IMEC model, industry competitors can work together creatively and openly. The competitive edge that each company seeks will be honed later--after the real roadblocks to development have been collaboratively solved.
Not every program presented by IMEC required an advanced degree for one to appreciate it. For instance, presenters showed how work on flexible semiconductors, wireless instruments, and low-power design has merged with biomedical research to develop early prototypes of home sleep-apnea monitors and self-powered EEGs (see Figure 3).
The Review’s closing panel, which included Fred Roozeboom of NXP and Jochen Resinger of Infineon along with IMEC’s Diederik Verkest and Erick Beyne, explored the coming reality of 3D design. Homogeneous memory stacking is already in place. But heterogonous design, which requires stacking and connecting many different kinds of IP, will be much more complex--and risky. Developing the necessary tools is still a task for the future. By sharing the risks and developing the rewards, however, research consortiums like IMEC probably offer the best chance at making the necessary first breakthroughs.
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Captions:
Figure 1: The future faces a tough audience in the international press.
Figure 2: FEOL integration director Serge Biesemans, IMEC president Gilbert Declerck, and IMEC chief operating officer Luc Van den hove relax after their presentations.
Figure 3: Sleep apnea and self-powered brain monitors prepare for show time.
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@subhead: People in the News
@text:
Denis Février named Chief Financial Officer for CoFluent Design
CoFluent Design appointed Denis Février as its Chief Financial Officer (CFO). His charter is to streamline business structure and processes as well as build financial capability. He held similar positions at multinational companies like Tyco Healthcare France and Key Plastics Automotive Group. Février holds a master’s of International Business and Financial Administration from the University of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne and the University of London.
Tilera Names Industry Veteran Omid Tahernia CEO
Tilera Corp. appointed Omid Tahernia, 47, President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO). Tahernia was previously the Vice President and General Manager of the Processing Solutions Group at Xilinx Inc. He has 24 years of broad industry experience. Tahernia has a master’s degree in electrical engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology and a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. He holds 13 patents.
Mehdi Bathaee Becomes COO of MoSys
MoSys Inc. appointed Mehdi Bathaee as its first Chief Operating Officer. Bathaee will be responsible for all of the internal operations related to the three lines of business: 1T-SRAM, 1T-FLASH, and Mixed Signal Products. He was formerly General Manager of the Network Storage Products Group of Atmel Inc. Bathaee joined MoSys when the company acquired the mixed-signal products division from Atmel Corp.
Dr. Robert K. Brayton Honored as 14th Kaufman Award Winner
Dr. Robert K. Brayton, Cadence Distinguished Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the University of California at Berkeley, has been chosen for the Phil Kaufman Award for Distinguished Contributions to Electronic Design Automation (EDA). Brayton’s seminal contributions to logic synthesis have been critical to the design of application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) and the development of CAD products that use logic-synthesis software.
ViASIC Names Lynn Hayden President and CEO
ViASIC Inc. has appointed Lynn Hayden as President and CEO. Hayden is responsible for leading the company and its business growth worldwide. In addition, he continues to serve as Chairman of ViASIC’s board of directors--a position he has held since January 2006. Prior to ViASIC, Hayden served for 20 years as President and CEO of Coiltronics, a company he founded in 1977.
Dr. James Wight joins KABEN as Chief Scientist
Kaben Wireless Silicon Inc. has named Dr. James S. Wight as Chief Scientist. Wight will be responsible for spearheading Kaben’s development activities in innovative RF technologies. He is an RF industry veteran with over 30 years of experience in antennas, microwave circuits, and synchronizer circuits for wireless communications, radar, and radio navigation. Wight has been a professor at Carleton University in Ottawa, Ontario. He holds 22 patents.
Ciranova Appoints Eric Filseth as CEO
Ciranova Inc., an EDA startup, has named Eric Filseth as Chief Executive Officer. Filseth spent 17 years with Cadence Design Systems, where he was Marketing Vice President for Digital Implementation products. He also held executive positions with Silicon Perspective Corp. and Sente Inc. Previously, Filseth managed product marketing for analog, RF, and mixed-signal products at Cadence. Filseth received an MBA from UCLA and a BSEE from Stanford University.
MathStar Selects Russell Corvese as VP of Worldwide Sales
Russell Corvese has joined MathStar Inc., a fabless semiconductor company, as Vice President of Worldwide Sales. He comes from Fairchild Semiconductor, where he was Senior Director of Americas Field Marketing. Prior to Fairchild, Corvese was with Actel for 10 years. At Actel, he held a variety of sales management roles--most recently as Director of Sales, Japan and Director of Sales, North American distribution.
Jay Legenhausen Becomes Senior VP of Worldwide Sales for Actel
The 17-year veteran will lead Actel’s growth initiatives for its low-power FPGA and PSC solutions. Legenhausen comes to Actel from Cypress Semiconductor, where he was Vice President of Sales focused on the Americas. He holds a bachelor’s degree in engineering from Rutgers University, a master’s degree in engineering from the University of Wisconsin, and a master’s degree in business from New York University.
XMOS Appoints Richard Terrill as VP of Marketing
Richard Terrill brings 20 years of high technology marketing and engineering experience to XMOS Semiconductor as Executive VP of Marketing. He will handle worldwide marketing and product-planning activities. Terrill has held senior-management positions at Velogix, Xilinx, Lightspeed, Cadence, and Altera. He was a founder of RAPID and a corporate representative to the VSI Alliance. Terrill has a Physics B.S. from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.
MoSys Names Len Perham CEO
Industry veteran Len Perham has joined MoSys as President and Chief Executive Officer. Perham has over 30 years of leadership and industry experience and has been involved with MoSys since its inception. He has been active as a board member, chairman, and partner in major companies. Perham served as President and CEO of Integrated Device Technology and Optical Information Systems Inc. He also was part of the founding team at Zilog Inc. Perham holds a BSEE from Northeastern University.
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@subhead: Events in the News
@text:
IP Based Electronic System Conference (IP 07)
December 5-6, 2007
World Trade Center, Grenoble, France
In addition to the IP/SoC 2007 working conference, the attached exhibition provides the opportunity to see the reality of an SoC-connected world. The exhibition will allow one to meet the most advanced suppliers and see the latest products.
http://www.us.design-reuse.com/ip07/
SEMICON Japan 2007
December 5-7, 2007
Makuhari Messe, Chiba, Japan
Well-planned exhibit zones as well as the “Booth Navigator” exhibit search system and event directory allow conference-goers to go straight to the companies and technology that they want to see. There are close to 1500 exhibiting companies. In addition, this event includes the SEMI Technology Symposium (STS), over 40 technical seminars, and more than 60 standards meetings held concurrently with the main exposition.
http://semiconjapan.semi.org/SCJAPAN2007-EN/Visitors/index.htm
2007 IEEE International Electron Devices Meeting
December 10-12, 2007
Hilton Washington, Washington, DC
A forum for reporting breakthroughs in technology, design, manufacturing, physics, and the modeling of semiconductors and other electronic devices. Topics range from deep-submicron CMOS transistors and memories to novel displays and imagers. From compound semiconductor materials, they also cover nanotechnology devices and architectures as well as everything from micromachined devices to smart-power technologies and more.
http://www.his.com/~iedm/
International Conference on Field-Programmable Technology 2007
December 12-14, 2007
Kitakyushu International Conference Center, Kokurakita, Kitakyushu, Japan
This conference includes talks on high-performance computing on reconfigurable systems; dynamically reconfigurable processors in Japan; SoC, FPGA, EDA, and OS tools; applications; architecture; memory and IP protection; and poster sessions.
http://www.kameyama.ecei.tohoku.ac.jp/icfpt07/
International Conference on Microelectronics (ICM 2007)
December 29-31, 2007
Nile Hilton, Cairo, Egypt
The IEEE International Conference on Microelectronics is held in cooperation with the IEEE Electron Devices Society. It has been held in numerous countries across the Middle East and Asia over the past 18 years. ICM 2007 will include oral and poster sessions as well as tutorials given by experts in state-of-the-art topics.
http://www.ieee-icm.com/
FSA Awards Dinner
December 6, 2007
Santa Clara Convention Center, Santa Clara, CA
This premier event honors the achievements of semiconductor companies in categories ranging from outstanding leadership to financial accomplishments as well as overall respect within the industry.
http://www.fsa.org/awardsdinner/2007/index.asp
SEMICON Japan 2007
December 5-7, 2007
Makuhari Messe, Chiba, Japan
The world’s largest exhibition of semiconductor equipment and materials with over 1500 exhibiting companies. The five pavilions of Innovation Hall are dedicated to the frontiers of semiconductor technology.
http://semiconjapan.semi.org/SCJAPAN.var
2008 International CES
January 7-10, 2008
Las Vegas Convention Center, Las Vegas, Nevada
“Experience the Art of Technology” is the theme of the new Consumer Electronics Show—dubbed “the show” for experiencing what’s new and what’s over the top for the coming year. 2700 exhibitors and miles of displays will be waiting.
http://www.cesweb.org/
International Solid-State Circuits Conference 2008
February 3-7, 2008
San Francisco Marriott Hotel, San Francisco, California
This forum features advances and trends in solid-state circuits and systems-on-a-chip. It’s an opportunity for engineers working at the cutting edge of IC design and use to stay current and to network with leading experts.
http://www.isscc.org/isscc/index.htm
DesignCon 2008
February 5-6, 2008
Santa Clara Convention Center, Santa Clara, California
This show attracts all levels and disciplines of electronic professionals. It ranges from applications engineering to architecture and systems design and includes semiconductor product management, service and support, software development, testing and debugging, and more.
http://www.designcon.com/2008/
DVCon 2008
February 19-21, 2007
Doubletree Hotel, San Jose, California
The Design & Verification Conference and Exhibition is the place to learn what is new in methodology, tools, and technology for addressing design and verification productivity and quality.
http://www.dvcon.org/
FPGA 2008
February 24-26, 2008
Monterey Beach Resort, Monterey, California
The ACM/SIGDA International Symposium on Field-Programmable Gate Arrays is the premier conference for the presentation of advances in all areas related to FPGA technology.
http://www.ece.wisc.edu/~kati/fpga2008/