The 23rd International Conference on VLSI Design

The 23^rd International Conference on VLSI Design along with the 9^th International Conference on Embedded Systems was held at NIMHANS Convention centre , Bangalore from January 3^rd to January 7^th 2010.The theme of this year’s conference was “Affordable Technology for Emerging Markets”. It was jointly organized by VLSI Society of India (VSI), IEEE Circuits and Systems Society, Bangalore chapter of ACM and IEEE.

Electronic systems are ubiquitous today in multiple applications, with emerging markets in health-care, entertainment and machine intelligence spurring several new ones. These markets often hinge delicately on the right blend of technology and affordability. Hence the theme was chosen. Some of the theme related topics discussed were:

• Automation needs to meet new product challenges
• Concurrent engineering
• Design and technology management
• Economics of design and manufacturing
• Emerging markets

The event saw researchers, designers and leading electronics firms come together to discuss and present various aspects of VLSI design, electronic design automation (EDA), enabling technologies, and embedded systems. Almost all the big players of the semi conductor industry were represented there. Apart from talks and discussions there was a exhibition which provided a unique opportunity for vendors of VLSI design tools and services to display their products and services.

In an interview with EE Times Poornima Shenoy, president, India Semiconductor Association (ISA) talks about the year ahead, challenges and new opportunities. She said” As per industry estimates, the domestic production of electronics in India has grown at 16 per cent annually over the FY04-09 period to reach revenues of Rs.93, 644.46 crore ($20 billion). A significant portion of domestic production is consumed in the Indian market and only a small portion of the production is exported. Exports of electronics stood at Rs.20, 601.78 crore ($4.4 billion) for FY09, representing 21 per cent of domestic production. Exports have grown at 19.5 per cent annually for the FY04-09 period. (See charts 1 and 2.)”

Chart 1: ISA projects domestic electronics demand based on industry estimates	Chart 2: ISA projects India's electronics export growth based on industry estimates.

Biswadip Mitra , MD and president , Texas Instruments India said : "An important if not the guiding factor in the coming decade is not only making the products right but doing the right product, which means, developing system engineering skills amongst the chip design community" "India is acknowledged for its world class chip designing capabilities. In addition, we will see India becoming an important market for semiconductor products. This is a huge opportunity as the market is growing significantly in various vertical segments

"Emerging markets are the future and India can lead the way. With emerging requirements, the focus will increasingly rest on more embedded semiconductor solutions. And slowly, but surely, the market shall see products and solutions that are made in India, for India. This makes the 23rd VLSI conference relevant and valuable. Bangalore, with its unique place in the semiconductor and embedded systems ecosystem, is well placed to help accelerate the growth vector for this industry”; this was the opinion of Mahesh Mehendale, general co-chair and TI fellow and director, Centre of Excellence for Digital Video

As part of the conference, tutorial programs were held on 3^rd and 4^th of January. Industry leaders and distinguished academics spoke about various technical aspects of VLSI and semiconductor industry and research. An Industry Forum (IF) track in VLSI 2010 was organized to facilitate interactions amongst the industry players specifically working on the theme of the conference; namely “affordable technology for emerging markets”. It was held on 5^th and 6^th January. “Education Forum” program, with a series of lectures on current topics of research and state-of-the-art techniques was held on 7^th January and lectures were given by leaders from industry/academia within the framework of the VLSI conference

Some of the emerging hot topics discussed during the conference were:

• Robust System Design
• Chips of 2020
• At the Dawn of 22nm Era!
• FinFET SRAM Design
• Video Compression Architectures
• 3-D IC Architectures
• Digital Microfluidic Biochips
• Front-end Design Flows
• Lithographic Patterning

Over 20 companies showcased their products and solutions during the conference: Xilinx, Agilent, Rambus, Wipro Tarang, ARM, Cypress, and Synopsis to name a few.