An overview of Design Automation Conference (DAC) 2018

“No matter what people tell you, words and ideas can change the world” – Robin Williams
That’s exactly what happened in DAC2018 at Moscone Center, San Francisco. I was invited for a talk in DAC summer school, on my work “vsdflow” which is also one of the main topics of discussion in my “TCL programming” course on Udemy. I would say, the entire DAC was a journey of events, exchange of ideas between brightest minds of the world.
It started with DAC summer school, where, along with me, there were couple of more speakers shown in below image:

Onur Mutlu, Professor of Computer Science at ETH Zurich, talked about development of in-memory processing designs, being adopted in real computing platforms and data-intensive applications.

This talk was followed by Kaushik Roy from Purdue University, who introduced stochastic learning, which reduces storage requirement, while maintaining accuracy.

Then came Sani Nassif from Radyalis and, would say, one of the best talks I have heard so far on EDA. His journey from old calculators to iphone’s to machine learning to data mining was really an eye-opener. He has seen the world changing in front of his eyes and is amazed on how software replaced hardware, future of Moore’s law and EDA tools.

This was followed by my talk on vsdflow and was concluded by Seetharam Narasimhan from Intel, who discussed about security of SOC products

Next day was DAC inauguration day by Sharon Hu, and below image captures it all

Uniqueness of DAC is it’s a premier event, not only for EDA, but for all streams, right from embedded systems to MOSFETS to advanced machine learning and cloud computing. The posters which were presented were high-quality covering topics from electro-thermal simulations for analog designs, 3D IC’s, power-efficient clock tree design, multi-cycle path exceptions automation and verification methodology.

The most interesting key-note was given by Prof. David Patterson, an American computer pioneer and academic who has held the position of Professor of Computer Science at the University of California, Berkeley since 1976. He covered the history of ISA’s and even the future of ISA’s in 40min and that was amazing. Below image covers it all:

Not only that, there was a “Straight Talk” by Naveed Sherwani, SiFive CEO who discussed what’s changing in chip architectures, where open-source hardware fits in, who is using it and why he’s using it, and advantages and disadvantages of an architecture, which can be modified by vendors.

This talk really inspired us, as most of our courses and vision are in-line with his talk about the future.

When someone tells you, that you “are and were” doing the right till now, that’s inspiring.

And finally, some concluding pictures which mentions that next DAC is happening in “Las Vegas”. Since its Vegas, it must be wilder and bigger than this one

I also had a chance to click pictures with Prof. David Patterson, after months of following and working with him online, on RISC-V courses on Udemy.

To sum up, this event has really re-shaped the paths to reach our company’s vision and very soon, you will see some exciting updates from us which will help you in a better way.

“Meeting sharpest minds on earth, discussing the future, embedding our dreams into that and plans to make it a reality” – That’s what DAC was about for me…

All the best and happy learning….

Registration for Ethical RISC-V IoT Workshop

Welcome to Ethical RISC-V IoT Workshop

The “Ethical RISC-V IoT Workshop” at IIIT Bangalore, organized in collaboration with VSD, is a structured, educational competition aimed at exploring real-world challenges in IoT and embedded systems. Participants progress through three stages: building an application, injecting and managing faults, and enhancing application security. The event spans from May 9 to June 15, 2024, culminating in a showcase of top innovations and an award ceremony. This hands-on hackathon emphasizes learning, testing, and securing applications in a collaborative and competitive environment.

Rules :
  1. Only for Indian Student whose college is registered under VTU
  2. Only team of 2 members can Register
  3. Use only VSDSquadron Mini resources for product development
Awards :
  1. Prize money for final 10 Team
  2. 3 Winner team’s Product will be evaluated for Incubation
  3. 7 consolation prizes
  4. Completion Certificate to final round qualifier
  5. Chance to build a Proud Secured RISC-V Platform for India

Date for Registration : 9th May - 22nd May, 2024
Hackathon Inauguration : 23rd May 2024

VSDSquadron (Educational Board)

VSDSquadron, a cutting-edge development board based on the RISC-V architecture that is fully open-source. This board presents an exceptional opportunity for individuals to learn about RISC-V and VLSI chip design utilizing only open-source tools, starting from the RTL and extending all the way to the GDSII. The possibilities for learning and advancement with this technology are limitless.

Furthermore, the RISC-V chips on these boards should be open for VLSI chip design learning, allowing you to explore PNR, standard cells, and layout design. And guess what? vsdsquadron is the perfect solution for all your needs! With its comprehensive documentation and scalable labs, thousands of students can learn and grow together.

VSD HDP (Hardware Design Program) Duration-10 Week

With VSD Hardware Design Program (VSD-HDP),  you have the opportunity to push the boundaries of what exist in open source and establish the new benchmark for tomorrow.

It will leverage your degree in Electrical or Computer Engineering to work with

  • Programmable logic
  • Analog/ digital IP
  • RISC-V
  • Architecture & microprocessors
  • ASICs and SoCs on high-density digital or RF circuit cards
  • Gain hands-on knowledge during design validation and system integration.

Sounds exciting to just get started with expert mentors, doesn’t it? But we are looking for the next generation of learners, inventors, rebels, risk takers, and pioneers.

“Spend your summer working in the future !!”

Outcomes of VSD Online Research IP Design Internship Program

  1. Job opportunities in Semiconductor Industry
  2. Research work can be submitted to VLSI International journals
  3. Participate in Semiconductor International Conference with Internship Research Work
  4. Paper Publications in IEEE Conference and SIG groups
  5. Tape out opportunity and IP Royalty
  6. Interact with world class Semiconductor designer and researchers
  7. Academic professions where more research projects are encouraged.
  8. All the above research and publication work will help colleges and institutes to improve accreditation levels.

Know More Information

VSD – Intelligent Assessment Technology (VSD-IAT)

VSD – Intelligent Assessment Technology (VSD-IAT) is expertly built training platform and is suited for designer requirements. Semiconductor companies understand the value of training automation and Engineer performance enhancement, and do not need to be convinced of the impact of a virtual platform for learning. VSD trainings are quick, relevant, and easy to access from any device at any time zone.

VSD Intern Webinars

VSD Interns made it happen !!

VSD is working towards creating innovative talent pool who are ready to develop design and products for the new tech world. VSD believes in “Learning by doing principle” , and always prepare the student to apply the knowledge learned in the workshops, webinars and courses. We always push our students to work on new designs, test it and work continuously till it becomes the best performing design. Any student who enrolls to VSD community starts working with small design and grows with us and develops a tapeout level design with complete honesty and dedication towards the Work !!

Check out VSD Interns Achievement!

VSDOpen Online Conference

Welcome to the World’s only online conference in Semiconductor Industry VSDOpen Conference. With enormous support and global presence of audience from different segments of industrial lobby and academia made a highly successful event. Evolution is change in the genetic makeup of a population over time, online conference is one kind evaluation everyone adapt soon. 

  • VSDOpen 2022 is an online conference to share open-source research with the community and promote  hardware design mostly done by the student community.
  • VSDOpen 2022 is based on the theme “How to lower the cost to learn, build, and tapeout chips ?”  , which will provide a platform to community to build stronger designs and strengthen the future of Chip design.
  • VSDOpen is envisioned to create a community based revolution in semiconductor hardware technology.
  • The open source attitude is required to bring out the talent and innovation from the community who are in remote part of world and have least access to the technologies.  And now Google support will help to bring the vision to execution by VSD team

VSD Online Course by Kunal Ghosh

VSD offers online course in complete spectrum of vlsi backend flow from RTL design, synthesis and Verification, SoC planning and design, Sign-off analysis, IP Design, CAD/EDA automation and basic UNIX/IT, Introduction to latest technology – RISC-V, Machine intelligence in EDA/CAD, VLSI Interview FAQ’s.

Current Reach – As of 2021, VSD and its partners have released 41 online VLSI courses and was successfully able to teach  ~35900 Unique students around 151 countries in 47 different languages, through its unique info-graphical and technology mediated learning methods.

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