Gary Smith (March 9, 1941 – July 3, 2015"In Loving Memory of Gary Smith"
(retrieved July 6, 2015 )"In His Own Words – Gary Smith Biography"
(retrieved November 4, 2019)) was a veteran

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

(EDA)

business analyst A business analyst (BA) is a person who processes, interprets and documents business processes, products, services and software through analysis of data. The role of a business analyst is to ensure business efficiency increases through their know ...

. He was chief analyst of Gary Smith EDA firm.'Gary Smith EDA' website
/ref>

Biography

Smith was born in

Stockton, California Stockton is a city in and the county seat of San Joaquin County, California, San Joaquin County in the Central Valley (California), Central Valley of the U.S. state of California. Stockton was founded by Carlos Maria Weber in 1849 after he acquir ...

, and grew up in the

San Joaquin Valley The San Joaquin Valley ( ; es, Valle de San Joaquín) is the area of the Central Valley of the U.S. state of California that lies south of the Sacramento–San Joaquin River Delta and is drained by the San Joaquin River. It comprises seven c ...

. He graduated with a bachelor of science degree in engineering from the

United States Naval Academy The United States Naval Academy (US Naval Academy, USNA, or Navy) is a federal service academy in Annapolis, Maryland. It was established on 10 October 1845 during the tenure of George Bancroft as Secretary of the Navy. The Naval Academy ...

in Annapolis, Maryland. After six years of active duty in Vietnam, he returned to civilian life as a salesperson for semiconductor companies including National Electronics,

International Rectifier International Rectifier was an American power management technology company manufacturing analog and mixed-signal ICs, advanced circuit devices, integrated power systems, and high-performance integrated components for computing. On 13 January 20 ...

TRW Inc. TRW Inc., was an American corporation involved in a variety of businesses, mainly aerospace, electronics, automotive, and credit reporting.http://www.fundinguniverse.com/company-histories/TRW-Inc-Company-History.html TRW Inc. It was a pioneer ...

Signetics Signetics Corporation was an American electronics manufacturer specifically established to make integrated circuits. Founded in 1961, they went on to develop a number of early microprocessors and support chips, as well as the widely used 555 time ...

, Telmos, and

Plessey The Plessey Company plc was a British electronics, defence and telecommunications company. It originated in 1917, growing and diversifying into electronics. It expanded after World War II by acquisition of companies and formed overseas compani ...

. At Plessey, he transitioned to engineering management for ASICs. Joining

LSI Logic LSI Logic Corporation, an American company founded in Milpitas, California, was a pioneer in the ASIC and EDA industries. It evolved over time to design and sell semiconductors and software that accelerated storage and networking in data cente ...

, he became a CAD methodologist implementing the then novel

register-transfer level In digital circuit design, register-transfer level (RTL) is a design abstraction which models a synchronous digital circuit in terms of the flow of digital signals (data) between hardware registers, and the logical operations performed on those ...

(RTL) design methodology. From 1994 to 2006 he worked for the market research firm Dataquest (later known as

Gartner Dataquest Gartner, Inc is a technological research and consulting firm based in Stamford, Connecticut that conducts research on technology and shares this research both through private consulting as well as executive programs and conferences. Its clients ...

) as managing vice-president and chief analyst for EDA market analysis. From 2006 up to his death, he led his own market research firm, Gary Smith EDA. He was known for his pre-

Design Automation Conference 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 (EDA). DAC is the oldest and largest conference in EDA, started in 1964. ...

Dataquest briefings with his ''"What to see at DAC"'' list."SystemVerilog for Design Second Edition: A Guide to Using SystemVerilog for Hardware Design and Modeling", 2006, Springer,
p. 412
/ref> He continued this tradition as an independent analyst. Annually Smith also updated his so-called wallcharts where he visually listed out vendors organized by tool category. In 2007 he received an ACM

SIGDA 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 educati ...

Distinguished Service award "in recognition for his contributions as Chief EDA Analyst at Gartner Dataquest for the past two decades". He died on July 3, 2015, in

Flagstaff, Arizona Flagstaff ( ) is a city in, and the county seat of, Coconino County, Arizona, Coconino County in northern Arizona, in the southwestern United States. In 2019, the city's estimated population was 75,038. Flagstaff's combined metropolitan area has ...

, after a short bout of pneumonia. Gary was married to Lori Kate Smith and they had son Casey."EDA industry analyst Gary Smith dies"
By: Rick Nelson, technology journalist, July 6, 2015 (retrieved December 1, 2016) He had daughters Tamara and Kim from his first wife, Diana Lee Smith. The Gary Smith Memorial Scholarship was set up at the

San Jose State University San José State University (San Jose State or SJSU) is a public university in San Jose, California. Established in 1857, SJSU is the oldest public university on the West Coast and the founding campus of the California State University (CSU) sys ...

."Gary Smith Memorial Scholarship"
(retrieved July 9, 2015)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Smith, Gary 1941 births 2015 deaths Electronic design automation people United States Naval Academy alumni