Friday, September 25, 2015

DVCON India turned 2!!!

Nothing beats nurturing a seed, an infant, an idea or an EVENT; watching it grow and clocking milestones of its achievements. For many of us, the bright sunny day of Sept 10 bought the same feeling. Yes, this month DVCon India turned 2!
 
Sponsored by Accellera, the conference expanded to India last year. An excellent platform for the design and verification community working at IP, SoC and System level to discuss problems, alternate solutions and contribute to standards. The ecosystem today has multiple EDA driven forums showcasing the right and optimal usage of their respective tools. DVCon being vendor neutral focuses on the need for standards in languages and methodologies to overcome the challenges introduced by rising complexity while emphasizing the right way of applying these standards.
 
History of DVCon
The history of DVCon can be traced back to late 80s when VHDL users met twice a year under the name VUG. By early 90s, it became an annual event called VIUF. Around the same time Verilog users also gathered annually for IVC. In the late 90s, these two events joined hands for HDLCon. In 2003, it was re-branded as DVCon. Based on these facts, DVCon US actually has been serving the community for 25+ years. In 2014, it expanded globally to India & Europe.
 


The 2 day conference was held at Leela Palace, Bangalore on Sept 10-11 2015. Riding on the success of DVCon India 2014, this year was planned to be bigger and better!!! Change in venue, modified program for higher interaction among the participants, addition of Gala dinner and higher quality of the content were the key highlights of this year’s event.  The program was put together keeping in mind the 4Cs : Contribute, Collaborate, Connect & Celebrate - a clear reflection of spirit of DVCon.
 
DAY 1
 
Packed hall with ~600 participants witnessing the lamp lightning ceremony was a clear indication of the enthusiasm that was set to unfold. Yours truly opened the DAY 1, introducing the program underlining the message that DVCon is all about active participation! Harry Foster from Mentor Graphics delivered the opening keynote 'From Growing Complexity to Faster Horses' citing interesting facts about the trends in design and verification. Vinay Shenoy shared an excellent insight as part of the invited keynote 'Perspective on Electronics Ecosystem in India' covering the history and initiatives under ‘Make in India’ campaign. Rest of the day kept everyone busy with invited talks from subject matter experts, panels on upcoming technologies and tutorials around standards. The exhibitors kept the crowd involved all throughout sharing potential solutions to the challenges faced. Having drenched with a rich rain of technical content throughout the day, it was time for some fun in the evening. The crowd came together celebrating 10 years of System Verilog as a standard and IEEE standardization of UVM. Amidst applauses, pranks, music, dance and illusions, the day 1 concluded with tweets and chirping over dinner & drinks.
 
DAY 2
 
An extended DAY 1 didn’t stop the participants to change the gears back to technical on DAY 2 with Ajeetha Kumari opening the day followed by Dennis Brophy sharing an overview on Accellera. Manoj Gandhi from Synopsys delivered the opening keynote 'Propelling the Next Generation of Verification Innovation' discussing how design and verification challenges have progressed and the need of the hour. Atul Bhatiya took the stage next as an invited keynote speaker talking about 'Opportunities in Semiconductor Design in India', encouraging the audience to envision and jump where the ball would be rather than running after it. Rest of the day hosted different tracks on papers and posters shortlisted by the Technical Program committee. By the evening, overwhelmed with the discussions, solutions and networking opportunities, the junta assembled again to appreciate the efforts put in by members of the DVCon India committees and congratulate the winners of Best Paper & poster awards!
 
As the Day 2 concluded, the team that put in stretched hours for almost a year was overjoyed with the grand success of the event. Those relentless efforts paid well in bringing up the conference to the next level. Yes! The nurturing all these days, witnessing the growth and marking the achievement of DVCon India 2015 was all worth it!
 
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