The Design Automation Conference, or DAC, is an annual event, a combination of a technical conference and a trade show, both specializing in

electronic design automation Electronic design automation (EDA), also referred to as electronic computer-aided design (ECAD), is a category of software tools for designing electronic systems such as integrated circuits and printed circuit boards. The tools work togeth ...

(EDA). DAC is the oldest and largest conference in EDA, started in 1964. 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 The Phil Kaufman Award was established in 1994 by the EDA Consortium (now the Electronic System Design Alliance, a SEMI Technology Community) to recognize individuals for their impact on electronic design by their contributions to electronic desi ...

, for this effort and Marie was honored by having an award established in her name, the Marie Pistilli Award. 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, only topics concerned with electronic design have been included. 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. Other similar conferences are the

International Conference on Computer-Aided Design The International Conference on Computer-Aided Design (ICCAD) is a yearly conference about electronic design automation. From the start in 1980 until 2014 the conference was held in San Jose, California. It is sponsored by the IEEE Circuits and S ...

, or ICCAD (technical only, no trade show),

Design Automation and Test in Europe A design is a plan or specification for the construction of an object or system or for the implementation of an activity or process or the result of that plan or specification in the form of a prototype, product, or process. The verb ''to design'' ...

(DATE),

Asia and South Pacific Design Automation Conference The Asia and South Pacific Design Automation Conference, or ASP-DAC is a yearly conference on the topic of electronic design automation. It is typically held in late January in the Far East, as the name implies. It is sponsored by the IEEE Circ ...

(ASPDAC), and International Symposium on Quality Electronic Design (ISQED). Over the past few years the conference location has been alternating among

San Diego San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the eighth most populous city in the United States ...

Austin Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of Texas, as well as the seat and largest city of Travis County, with portions extending into Hays and Williamson counties. Incorporated on December 27, 1839, it is the 11th-most-populous city ...

and

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17t ...

. The conference is usually held in June. DAC is sponsored by two professional societies: ACM-SIGDA (

Association for Computing Machinery The Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) is a US-based international learned society for computing. It was founded in 1947 and is the world's largest scientific and educational computing society. The ACM is a non-profit professional member ...

Special Interest Group on Design Automation SIGDA, Association for Computing Machinery's Special Interest Group on Design Automation , is a professional development organization for the Electronic Design Automation (EDA) community. SIGDA is organized and operated exclusively for education ...

) and IEEE-CEDA (

Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) is a 501(c)(3) professional association for electronic engineering and electrical engineering (and associated disciplines) with its corporate office in New York City and its operation ...

IEEE Council on Electronic Design Automation The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) is a 501(c)(3) professional association for electronic engineering and electrical engineering (and associated disciplines) with its corporate office in New York City and its operation ...

), in technical cooperation with IEEE-SSCS ( IEEE Solid-State Circuits Society). DAC is organized by hundreds of volunteer committee members from EDA companies and academia.

Recent history

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

References

External links

Design Automation Conference website
{{Authority control Electronic design automation conferences IEEE conferences International conferences in the United States Association for Computing Machinery conferences Recurring events established in 1964 Annual events in the United States

Recent history

See also

References

External links