May I be the first to call for the removal of the ‘T’ in DATE (Design Automation & Test in Europe)? If you read the trade press, there was no
Test there! DATE 2008 came and went, and for those of us interested in
Test - if you weren’t lucky enough to attend - well, it may as well not have even happened. One out of seven technical tracks was dedicated to test issues, but precious little energy was spent by the ‘legitimate’ trade press regarding any test-related activity at DAtE. Oh, I did see one word-for-word regurgitation of Atrenta’s announcement of a DFT-related tool enhancement supporting RTL analysis for transition faults and low at-speed fault-coverage. Good thing we had a ‘journalist’ to vet that story out…
DAC will be the same this year - according to the published conference program, there is exactly one session that is test-related, grouped together with about ten verification events/sessions, under the heading ‘Verification and Test’. DFM garners slightly more mindshare. I guess that’s fine. At least DAC doesn’t have ‘Test’ in the name of their conference.
So what do you think, Test and DFT folks? Are we not stepping up to the plate and contributing? Or is the existence of test-related categories in these conferences just a token nod to us guys on the other side of the wall between design and test?
April 7th, 2008 at 11:29 am
My experience in the Test and DFT worlds is that most companies have little to nothing dedicated to marketing. As a result, when opportunities pop up for raising the visibility of their company by participating in industry events, they miss the deadlines.
Without “marketing minds” pushing internally, companies generally descend into the “field of dreams” marketing practice (if we build it someone will buy it).
April 7th, 2008 at 1:51 pm
Well, it’s not only the vendors that aren’t there, but the research papers that give us a good idea of where the industry is going, and how people are using existing tools to solve present-day problems. ITC is the main conference (I’d say the major conference), and there are several smaller symposia and workshops, but if I compare Test to Verification, it seems that Verification not only has its major conference (DVCON), but is also very well represented at other major design conferences (DAC, DATE, etc). Not the case for Test - so sometimes I wonder whether we’re trying hard enough…
April 8th, 2008 at 7:49 am
That’s my point. There is no incentive internally in most companies, especially Test, to venture outside of the lab. They might go to the trade show and see if anyone else is doing anything, but they don’t feel the need to share their own stuff. That’s what good marketers are for.
April 8th, 2008 at 2:06 pm
OK - I see. I get your point. I also think there’s a lot of innovation going on in small companies that never sees the light of day, because startups can’t afford to send their people to conferences (either they don’t have a ‘conference budget’ for ‘non-essential’ conferences, or can’t let folks off for a week to go). I’ve missed more than one ITC because I was up to my eyeballs in alligators…