DFT Digest

It’s that time of year again:  The 2009 Southwest DFT Conference will be held again in Austin TX, April 2nd and 3rd, sponsored by SiliconAid – a two day event that consists of a day-long tutorial and a second day consisting of three paper sessions, a panel discussion (and happy hour), and sponsored booths all day long.  It’s the 6th year for this get-together, and it’s been growing every year.

The tutorial is entitled “DFT and Test for Managers and More“, and will be presented by Tony Ambler (University of Texas), Al Crouch (Asset-Intertech), Jay Bedsole (Freescale), and Jim Johnson (SiliconAid).  Targeted at DFT and test engineers and their management, it will cover basic DFT measures (when/why they are used), and test economics, including resource and scheduling issues.  The tutorial will be at AMD.

The ‘technical day’ will be led off with a keynote address from Janusz Rajski of Mentor Graphics, followed by a two-paper session, 20 minutes of vendor presentations and lunch.  The afternoon will consist of another two paper sessions: the first with three papers – from ARM, Freescale and TI, and the second with two papers – from Rohit Kapur of Synopsys on power-aware ATPG, and an unnamed VC presenting the “Semiconductor Business Review and Outlook“… which I’m sure will make folks want to start happy hour early (it’s scheduled to start during the panel discussion immediately following the last paper).

Jim Johnson of SiliconAid says, “Come and experience Austin hospitality and network with some of the industries best DFT and Test professionals. Special thanks to our sponsors to make this conference possible (Synopsys, Mentor Graphics, and WinterLogic)“.

In these uncertain economic times, this is certain – the company’s good, and the price is right: FREE registration (save $30) if before March 27th, FREE lunch both days, courtesy of SiliconAid, and FREE coffee!  What’s not to like?