Global leaders speak at the 21st International VLSI design conference

By Christo Jacob   |   Thursday, 10 January 2008, 02:22 IST
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Hyderabad: 21st International VLSI design conference, back in City of pearls- Hyderabad sparkled with pearls of wisdom. The conference which has a legacy of its own, apart from previous VLSI's conferences, for the first time, over 700 engineering students from the local colleges were provided an opportunity to participate and to interact with leading VLSI and Embedded System Architects, and the technology experts. The event was inaugurated by Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Dr Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy at Hyderabad International Convention Centre. He assured that government would extend support to chip-manufacturing and designing industry in terms of infrastructure and logistics, besides ensuring law and order. Dirk Meyer, President and COO, Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) industry said "the semiconductor industry, since inception, had been innovating and increasing performance through decreasing transistor sizes and correspondingly enhancing (transistor) densities." Meyer told siliconidia that witnessing the potential and contributions from India AMD R&D centres many more projects will be assigned from India R&D centers. While addressing the conference Walden C Rhines, CEO of Mentor Graphics said "India's future look so promising in semiconductor design. A growing force of fresh well educated designers, working in partnership with established multi-national companies positions India at the forefront of assimilating new design methodologies." As FPGA's becoming leading platforms for many electronics, Ivo Bolsens, Vice President and CTO, Xilinx cited that it is very important for current students to become the technology leaders in the industry. "For this industry and academia have to come together to create knowledge communities around specific technology domains," added Bolsens. During the conference, leading companies in the field displayed their products. With a mix of lucky draws and engaging the participants with the games, many stalls by the companies provided an exciting experience for the budding talent. Another attraction for students in this year's conference is "Student Design Contest : VLSI 2008" for operational and conceptual designs that are open to full-time graduate and undergraduates. The aim of the student contest is to promote excellence in the design of electronics systems in universities and educational establishments by providing a venue for students to showcase their designs. As part of the event, 'Student Track on VLSI Design and Embedded Systems' was organized in collaboration with VEDA IIT. The event witnessed to receive 336 papers out of which 107 papers were accepted.