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?
