Kaufman Award for Newton

A Richard Newton, Dean of the College of Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley, is this year's recipient of the prestigious Phil Kaufman Award.

A Richard Newton, Dean of the College of Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley, is this year's recipient of the prestigious Phil Kaufman Award.

Dr Newton was selected for his support and contributions to the EDA industry, including the pioneering work that is behind the success of many of today's commercial EDA products.

The EDA Consortium will present the award on Thursday 23rd October, at its annual award ceremony at the Fairmont Hotel in San Jose.

"Professor Newton's contributions to advancing the EDA industry are numerous and significant, directly impacting the success of our users - electronic designers", remarked Walden C Rhines, EDA Consortium Chairman and Chairman and CEO of Mentor Graphics Corp.

"Richard has been a visionary and catalyst for advancing our industry in his role as mentor, educator, researcher and entrepreneur".

Dr Newton is also the Roy W Carlson Professor of Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley, and a Professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences at Berkeley and was the founding Director of the MARCO/DARPA Gigascale Silicon Research Centre for Design and Test from 1998-2002.

His teaching and research interests include all aspects of the design of electronic systems and the application of information and communication technologies (ICT) to the solution of societal problems.

Aart de Geus, presenter of the Kaufman award and Chairman and CEO of Synopsys, added, "Rich embodies the heart and soul of the EDA industry.

His unfailing enthusiasm for the power of EDA to uphold Moore's Law serves as a continuing inspiration to us all.

Speaking for myself, Synopsys owes a great debt of gratitude to Rich, for without his vision and dedication, we would not be the company that we are today".

Newton began his EDA career as a student at the University of Melbourne, Australia, where he developed one of the first interactive versions of the Spice circuit simulator in 1971, using an ASR33 teletype.

He continued his work in circuit simulation at Berkeley, pioneering mixed-mode simulation and then developing with his students a timing analysis technique in the mid-1980s.

Prof Newton and his students have produced pioneering work in almost every area of electronic design automation, from multiprocessor-based circuit simulation to formal verification, from optimal circuit partitioning to probabilistic circuit placement techniques.

Dr Newton introduced the notion of a "CAD framework" to the research community in 1979 - where a unified data model, open tool-based integration methodology and extension language are used to construct and evolve an EDA system.

This work was used as the technical foundation for SDA Systems, now Cadence Design Systems.

He was also part of the core team that developed EDIF (Electronic Design Interchange Format).

Dr Newton has also played a key role in the formation of several successful EDA companies, including Synopsys, SDA, PIE Design Systems and Simplex Solutions (now part of Cadence) among others.

Initiated in 1994, the Phil Kaufman Award honours individuals who have made a substantial, sustainable contribution to the success and advancement of the EDA industry that benefits the industry's tools' users - electronics designers.

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