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Author Archives: paulmcl
Changes in relative value
It’s interesting how the relative values of things change over time. Agatha Christie, looking back on her early life, remarked that she “couldn’t imagine being too poor to afford servants, nor so rich as to be able to afford a … Continue reading
Posted in culture
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Application engineers
Application engineers are the unsung heroes of EDA. They have to blend the technical skills of designers with the interpersonal skills of salespeople. Most AEs start out as design engineers (or software engineers for the embedded market). But not all … Continue reading
Posted in engineering, sales
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EDA’s next top blogger
Denali’s competition for “EDA’s Next Top Blogger” is now open here. Please go there and vote for me (you are only allowed to vote once). There are two reasons I’d like you to do this. First, I’d like to win. … Continue reading
Posted in admin
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Friday puzzle: monkeys
It’s Friday on Thursday this week since Friday is a holiday for many people. Last week’s puzzle was to determine the largest order of McNuggets that McDonalds cannot make up using their portion sizes of 6, 9 and 20. It’s … Continue reading
Posted in puzzles
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The Denali party
As everyone in EDA knows, Denali has thrown a party every DAC for what seems like forever. I had lunch last week with Mark Gogolowski and I asked him how the party came about. It started 11 years ago in … Continue reading
Posted in eda industry, marketing
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What will I want in my devices?
Earlier this year, Paolo Gargini gave the keynote at DesignCon. He is an Intel fellow and director of technology strategy for their manufacturing group. He discussed three market enablers that would drive innovation and new products. He wasn’t being particularly … Continue reading
Posted in semiconductor
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DAC
The design automation conference (DAC) is later this month in San Francisco. Trade shows in general are probably gradually dying. I doubt we’ll be going to them in ten years time. But rumors of their death are somewhat exaggerated. DAC … Continue reading
Posted in eda industry
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Licensed to bill
As I’ve said before, in every sizeable EDA company that I’ve worked, a huge percentage, 30-50%, of all calls to the support hotline are to do with license keys. Why is this so complicated? Are EDA software engineers incompetent? Most … Continue reading
Friday puzzle: McNuggets
Last week’s puzzle was to calculate the resistance between opposite corners of a cube of identical resistors. Let’s assume they are all 1Ω since it doesn’t really matter. The key insight with this and many such problems is to find … Continue reading
Posted in puzzles
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Cadence, Avant!, SPC and Mitch
The big picture story of Cadence and Avant! is well known. Some Cadence employees left to create Avant! (initially called Arcsys) and stole Cadence source code. Cadence told the district attorney, Avant! was raided, and after several years delay, everyone … Continue reading
Posted in silicon valley
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