Jacques-Olivier Piednoir : SAME '99 microelectronics

The organizers as well as the contributors come from the firm circle : it is a chance that all the famous people dealing with microelectronics meet in Sophia.'

The ' Same'99 ' began in the CICA in Sophia Antipolis on October, Thursday 21st. But the public opening day (opened for everybody) should gather about 400 specialists in microelectronics and it will take place on October 22nd. Jacques-Olivier Piednoir, the president of Cadence, was one of the mainspring for this event, which occurs for the second time. He explains the broadlines.What are the new things compared with the first edition last year ? Jacques-Olivier Piednoir :This year again we find the details that are constituting the originality of the SAME. Look at Europe : almost the totality of forums about microelectronics are led by academics. Here, the organizers, as well as the contributors come from the firm sector. We have the chance to gather in Sophia Antipolis all the famous names in microelectronics and in CAD (Computer-aided Design) : Infineon (ex-Siemens), IBM, Texas Instruments, Conexant (ex-Rockwell), VLSI, Aventi, Mentor, Cadence, Euromips, Synopsys, Vériphia, etc.The big originality of this edition is to have introduced a day of guidance (on Thursday). It is about more detailed presentations which are done by experts in workshop form. These experts are famous and they come to present an issue that they perfectly know (for example a teacher who came from Berkeley, only for the SAME).What will the themes tackled on Friday be ? Jacques-Olivier Piednoir :If we look at what it is happening to the Sophia microelectronics pole today, we notice that the most buoyant sector is that of mobile telecommunications. Europe does not have either an Intel, or an AMD. But Europe is the leader on the market of cellular phones. This topic was thus given greater importance.What is in Europe, the place of the Sophia microelectronic pole ? Jacques-Olivier Piednoir :If we put together design and CAD, we find that 500 engineers work in that sector (150 at VLSI, 100 at Infineon, about 30 at Cadence, 40 on Aventi, more than 200 at TI, etc). However, there is no manufacturing in Sophia, nor production, as it is the case in Le Rousset, in Grenoble, in Paris or in Ireland.But, for design and CAD, the Sophipolitan pole occupies the first rank in Europe. Moreover it is a pole where European firms and American corporations are gathered together, and in that field, there is no equivalent in Europe.Today, the Sophipolitan pole must remain at least at the same level. And an event like the SAME was also launched in that perspective.