Guide to Austin for Newbies, and DAC Sunday Kickoff

This is my first post from DAC. I will be posting each day about the most interesting stuff that I saw the day before, except for the events that I feel justify their own post next week. Since it is Monday, and not much happened on Sunday (I didn't attend any of the co-located workshops) I've added some general stuff about Austin here, in case this is your first visit.

On the plane to Austin, I worked out that this is my 33rd DAC. I have been to every DAC since 1984 in Albuquerque. As my thirty-something daughter pointed out, that's before she was born.

Sunday Evening

As is traditional, on Sunday evening, Laurie Balch of Gary Smith EDA presents about major industry trends and what's hot at DAC. They always hand out a list of around 20 companies/products that they consider the most interesting. In my days working at startups, getting onto that list was very important since it is very hard for a startup to get visibility, and just going to DAC is not going to be money well spent without good traffic. This year there were 18 companies on the list (including Cadence for Emulation and Simulation, aka Palladium Z1 and Xcelium).

Laurie said similar things to what she said at last year's DAC. The industry is maturing:

Last time we saw double digit growth was 10 years ago and not likely in the near future. Future may be a little too aggressive.

Actually she started with a graph of what she called traditional EDA, namely without IP. But then she had a chart adding IP in too, which is pretty much how everyone else tracks the industry. See the chart below. Looking at it now, I have no idea why growth is predicted to fall to just 3% in 2019 and then go back to nearly 9% in 2020.

But, like everyone in EDA, she thinks that we need to find a way to grow into neighboring markets such as embedded software and mechanical design. Last year she pointed out that she was worried that mechanical design would encroach onto electronic design if we didn't do anything, and so she feels vindicated when Siemens acquired Mentor. I'm not sure I'd characterize Siemens as a mechanical design company, more of a supplier of system integration tools, but the point is taken. EDA needs to find a way to serve the areas of overlap at a minimum, marked with the red stars on the diagram below.

Actually, Laurie could have been delivering a System Design Enablement (SDE) pitch. She said that the EDA industry needs to:

Bring everything together for the design community at large. Don’t focus solely on semiconductor. What does it take to develop systems? Peripheral industries will be drivers of growth for the future. It requires a re-emphasis on what it will take to develop a system.

Well, you won't get any argument from Cadence about the sentiment. She pointed out that if adding IP to the numbers makes a big difference, just think what adding some of embedded software and mechanical will add.

Laurie then switched gears to what to see at DAC 2017. The areas were:

• Analog/mixed-signal/RF
• Emulation
• System-level tools
• IP
• Simulation and verification
• Circling around the edges of EDA

She also said something that I've been saying all year (and is pretty obvious anyway), that automotive is everywhere:

You cannot turn around without hearing people discussing the technical and business issues of the automotive industry.

One area Laurie thought EDA could learn from was mechanical design. They hit a growth plateau after about 15 years—mechanical design is driven largely by their own capabilities since metal and plastic doesn't change much year to year, unlike semiconductor technology. As semiconductor matures, and fewer and fewer companies are rushing to the leading edge, the industry will have to cope with generalists. The tools need to be more "idiot proof". This is probably most true in IoT, although I still don't see most IoT being an SoC play as opposed to standard products. However, for sure, there are an increasing number of designs going on in trailing-edge nodes and around 28nm where the foundries are introducing new flavors of process and optical shrinks (that they are calling 22nm). Leading-edge design tools are so near to impossible to get out, that ease of use is way down the list compared to being able to get a design done at all. That is not true in trailing-edge nodes where the technology for the tools is basically mature, but the flows could be made much simpler.

A couple of interesting points came up in the Q&A. One was that IP still has a lot of growth left in it since, as the questioner said, "any dollar that is not value added is ripe for IP, companies need to focus on what differentiates them." That is true, but in my opinion just because something is me-too doesn't make it ripe for an IP company to build. In rough numbers, R&D in a company like Cadence is a quarter of revenue. IP created and supported for the general market is maybe 3X as expensive as IP developed for a single chip. So in round numbers, the market for a standards-based IP block needs to be 10 times the cost to develop the block to make it attractive to create and supply it. Smaller companies, and consulting companies, have less overhead and a different P&L structure, but the basic point remains true: lots of people need to be using the same IP block to make it attractive to build.

Another question was that there are at least four ways that the EDA industry could interface with mechanical: develop new tools and technology, partner with mechanical design companies, acquire mechanical design companies, or be acquired. Laurie somewhat ducked the question by saying that all four are likely to happen. I don't see a lot of true new mechanical design technology being developed inside EDA companies, we don't know enough. And as for mechanical companies acquiring EDA companies, there is only Cadence (and maybe Altium) with the PCB technology, and it is hard to get to chips without going through PCB and unclear that you would want to.

With that, it was time for the DAC kickoff party and everyone left. It is hard to compete with free beer and wine, music, and appetizers.

Barbecue

If you want to see even longer lines than registration on Monday morning, then Franklin Barbecue is the place. People who live in Austin refuse to stand in the lines that can be as long as four hours. I've read that it starts at before 7am (update: one of my colleague's husband stood in line yesterday from 6am, and they were not first in line) and they don't even open until 11am. And it is hot in Austin. Or rainy. Not good standing-in-line weather mostly. When do they close? Like all good barbecue joints, when the meat runs out. My son lived in Austin for a month a few years ago before the hype got quite so intense, and only had to wait an hour or so. Aaron Franklin himself served him and his friends, and insisted that since it was their first visit they had to try everything. After that, how could it not be great?

You don't have to spend that long in line. But, like brunch in San Francisco, if you don't have to spend at least some time in line then the place isn't good enough to warrant a visit. A bunch of locals assess the top barbecue establishments in the city in An Expert Panel Ranks Austin's Best 8 Barbecue Joints. This dates from a couple of years ago, but barbecue doesn't change a lot. If it is good, they are cooking it today the same way they did 20 years ago.

One place I can recommend for DAC visitors is Iron Works Barbecue since it is just a few minutes walk around the back of the convention center. If you go, make sure to look at the mark on the wall which shows just how underwater the whole place was in the floods of 1935. That's the line above the apron in the photograph on the left.

However, barbecue is apparently one of those things like politics and religion that you don't discuss in Texas. People hold strong views. The only thing that you will get anyone to agree on is that the Salt Lick is fine, except for the one in the airport. But none of them have ever eaten in the one in the airport, it's more that barbecue is best in some rundown shack, not in an airport terminal. On the other hand, given the standard of most airport food (I'm especially looking at you, Chicago O'Hare), how can barbecue cooked on the premises not be better?

Anti-Barbecue

If you are vegetarian, vegan even, then there is a veggie heaven in Austin. It must be as described since it is named Austin Veggie Heaven. It is Asian-inspired vegan cuisine. I haven't been so I can't give you a personal review, but I can tell you that it closed a couple of years ago, and only reopened in May in a new location due to the clamor for them to return (the current owner's mother owned the original one and retired).

For those of you attending DAC, and are geeks, but I repeat myself, the decor is apparently Star Wars themed. Not quite sure what's going on there...Darth Vegan?

Live Music

Austin bills itself as the "Live Music Capital of the World." The specific place being 6th Street, with a large number of bars which do indeed play live music.

However, since you are at DAC, let me draw your attention to two specific events that involve live music.

On Monday night (tonight!) Heart of Technology has its annual party at DAC. It is for charity, this time benefiting a scholarship for disadvantaged youth at San Jose State University in memory of Gary Smith. Give $30 at the door and you can get into the VIP area which has specialty cocktails and food. You were meant to register in advance but I'm guessing it doesn't matter now, I'm sure they'll take your donation if you just show up. It is 7-11pm at the Speakeasy, 412 Congress Avenue D.

On Tuesday night, the annual Denali Party. The company has gone but the party lives on. As always, Disco Inferno will be playing. I'm sure Lip-Bu and some of the other executive staff will show up on stage at some point in costume, based on prior years. If you have already been by the Cadence booth, then you will have a good idea what sort of costume they will be wearing. The party will be at 8pm at Palm Door on 6th, 508 E 6th Street. But you can't just show up. You need to get a wristband from the Cadence booth before noon. If you didn't register, they are probably all gone, but try your chances anyway.

Bats

The first time I came to Austin, probably 20 years ago, I'd never heard about the bats. I went for a run along the path beside the river. At one point there was a sign saying not to pick up bats since they might be rabid. That seemed a bit weird, since in the middle of the day there were no bats to be seen and it seemed an unlikely location for them. But in fact there are a couple of million bats living underneath the Congress Avenue Bridge. At dusk, some nights, they all come out in a huge swarm. Last year at DAC I went down there on a couple of evenings but I was disappointed. A few adventurous bats came out but not the whole colony, at least not before it had gone dark and we'd all given up.

You can Google lots of videos of them emerging. Here is one: