CADENCE KO's FLOYD IN THE BIG O

by Peter Schenk, Cadence

In the ultimate application of "place and route" technology, Cadence succeeds in diverting the predations of Hurricane Floyd -- thus preventing the International Cadence User Conference in Orlando from "winding" down prematurely.

On Sunday, September 12^th, 260 Cadence users and 110 Cadence employees came together for a meeting in Orlando Florida: four days of panel sessions, tutorials, paper presentations, product demonstrations and fun. Thus began the annual International Cadence User Conference (ICUC), in which Cadence people and Cadence users met to exchange information and understanding about Cadence products and their uses.

The conference is organized by the International Cadence User Board, an independent organization of Cadence users from across North America, and supported by Cadence and our technology partners Sun Microsystems. This year IBM also provided 13 high-performance monitors for use with Cadence NT systems, and on Wednesday night there was a Vendor Fair of other third-party hardware and software technology that can support or be integrated with Cadence solutions.

On Sunday Cadence presented a total of nine Tutorials for those who chose to arrive a day early. The tutorial subject matter followed the four conference tracks: Systems and Circuit Design (SCD), Integrated Circuits (IC), Printed Circuit Boards (PCB) and Systems and Administration (Adm.). These tracks or "SIG's" also form the structure of the panels and papers that followed during the week.

Highlights of the Conference included opening remarks from Ray Bingham, Cadence CEO who pointed out that the User Conference was one example of Cadence's commitment to the user and went on to outline the recently formed Office of Customer Advocacy. There were several keynote addresses from other Cadence members of the executive staff. These included "The Cadence Technology Development Process" from Ted Vucurevich, Cadence Chief Architect/Fellow; "Cadence Technology Directions" from Paul McLellan, Cadence Vice President, Strategic Marketing, as well as an "e-business solutions" presentation from IBM General Manager, Pierre Liataud.

No less of a draw was Tuesday morning's breakfast address given by Captain James Lovell of the Apollo Space program. Capt. Lovell presented an event-by-event rendition of his command of the near-miraculous escape of the Apollo 13 crew having suffered a series of equipment malfunctions while orbiting the moon – managing to do all this without looking a bit like Tom Hanks.

The conference attendees had received their share of orbital fun the previous night while visiting, courtesy of Cadence, the Universal Studios Marvel SuperHero Island. This experience allowed participants to alternate among video games, a 3-D "Spiderman" ride, an extensive buffet dinner, "The Hulk" (a roller coaster which did high-speed barrel rolls and corkscrew turns simultaneously,) and still leave room for dessert.

Tuesday was Cadence Day at the Conference, featuring many panels staffed by Cadence experts to answer users' questions and gain appreciation of the user's perspective. That afternoon Cadence presented "Roadmap" overviews of future product directions and listened to the concerns of hands-on users.

All during these academic exchanges, conference participants monitored the slow approach of Hurricane Floyd, noting that an extrapolation of its route, as shown on the Weather Channel, projected it approximately right through the hotel lobby. No one took this too seriously, however, until the hotel slipped notes under the guest room doors, with a sober list of possible emergency preparations such as stockpiling the bathtub with water or even congregating in the ballrooms, away from the windows -- should Floyd arrive. On Tuesday afternoon before Floyd's scheduled landfall, Peter Stokes, Board president, made an announcement to the conference, underlining the Board's determination to keep the proceedings going. By then, they knew that many presenters might not show, either because their flights had been cancelled or because they were Florida residents and had returned to their homes to wait out the storm.

Tuesday night was Cadence "Demo Night" in which 16 simultaneous demonstrations of Cadence products were well attended by attendees and Cadence people alike. All during that day, four booths, presenting Cadence services were available to Conference people: Educational Services, Maintenance and Telesales, an ISDN-connected SourceLink booth and Documentation Services.

Documentation, in fact, was giving away little stuffed otters wearing life preservers, making some of us wonder if there was something the otters knew (about the coming storm) that we didn't. Almost everyone was taking a turn watching the sky from the hotel's conference-floor terrace. The Cadence staff had also convened and had worked out a hurricane emergency system, establishing contact people and rooms for each hotel floor. Nonetheless, following the Demo presentations, practicality ruled and many of the Conference participants chose the medicinal approach and fortified themselves in the hotel bar until closing. The next morning? Voila! Nada. Floyd, clearly intimidated by such a concentration of EDA talent, had turned to pester North Carolina and points north.

Flushed with victory, the conference continued as planned, with many of the Cadence staff stepping in on behalf of those who could not make scheduled appearances due to flight cancellations. Skillfully coordinating these on-the-fly substitutions were the Cadence SIG "Champions": Steve Durrill (SCD,) John Gianni (IC,) Dennis Rockwood (PCB,) and Mark Lasky (Adm.,) all of whom, beginning months earlier, had already put in much work lining up people and answers for this Tuesday's presentations.

Wednesday was primarily devoted to users' paper presentations followed by the Vendor fair in the evening, hosted by Sun. Thursday morning saw the final technical presentations, with a best speaker award presented at lunch. Thursday afternoon Cadence hosted four more tutorials to finish the proceedings.

Jan Henkel and her staff from Meeting Planning & More interfaced with the hotel staff and managed all conference registration, as they have successfully done for of the previous ten ICUC gatherings. Other people coordinating activities were Richard Terrill, Valerie Hoff, Jocelyn Newell and Peter Schenk of Product Marketing. A number of minor technical problems were solved and even more avoided by John Quach of MITS through diligent monitoring of 18 workstations, twelve additional hi-res. monitors, seven LCD projectors and two ISDN lines.

Behind all of this was the ICU Board who plans and invests in this annual event during the entire preceding year. These people take the risks and make this event happen, year after year, for users and for Cadence. This year the Board Chair passes from Peter Stokes of Canadian Microelectronics Corporation, who has held the position for several years to Joe Morrison of DII Solutions of Conklin, NY. Within 30 minutes of the close of this conference, the Board had gathered in one of the hotel rooms to pool what they had learned from the '99 event to make ICUC 2000 the best conference ever.

The Conference is primarily a venue for Cadence users to gain insight into new product directions, share information with each other, learn product techniques and communicate to Cadence their interests and concerns. Not coincidentally, this is exactly what Cadence gains, too, and is in alignment with the redoubled goals of Cadence's expanded connection to the customer.

The ICUC 2000 will be held next September in San Jose. With this year's success in the face of Hurricane Floyd and many 3000-mile commutes, think of what we can make it next year. If you think you can help out in the coming millennial event, contact the SIG champions or Peter Schenk.

See you then!