Spending a couple of days in the Lone Star State for the 50th Design Automation Conference--more precisely, in Austin, live music capital of the world, a very nice city (if a little warm) with sumptuous food and a vibrant semiconductor community. Due to a tight schedule, we didn't get to go to any of the jazz lounges, but we met a bunch of old friends and new on the show floor.
First day was spent renewing acquaintances and seeking out the latest and greatest technologies this year. OneSpin, a company doing Formal Verification, was one of the more interesting outfits. The crowd seemed a little different from that in the last few DACs (San Diego, San Francisco, etc.) but I couldn't quite put a finger on why. Part of it was due to the fact that people seemed a lot more accepting of what cloud computing can do for chip design. Our partnership announcement with a major FPGA vendor was well received. As this cloud model matures, questions have evolved a lot from the initial "How is cloud computing used in our workflows" and "How safe is my data in a cloud?", to "Here are the things slowing my design team down - how can your product help?"
This then sets the stage for an in-depth discussion that explores all the different use-models. All these are things that we have to put up on our website and other material to better explain our value.
The second and third days blew past in a flurry of meetings. We head back to Silicon Valley with tired feet and a much better understanding of the technology scene in Austin.
My only other regret was that I didn't get to see the bats feeding at dusk at the Austin Congress Bridge.
But according to a friend, the lady bats were heavily pregnant and rather sluggish at this time of year so less of them ventured out during feeding time anyway!