<pre>
===============================================================================
 SIGDA -- The Resource for EDA Professionals     http://www.sigda.org

 This newsletter is a free service for current SIGDA members
 and is added automatically with a new SIGDA membership.
 Circulation: 2,700
===============================================================================

   1 March 2007       ACM/SIGDA E-NEWSLETTER       Vol. 38, No. 5

   Online archive: http://www.sigda.org/newsletter

===============================================================================

Contents of this E-NEWSLETTER:

(1) SIGDA News
      Contributing author: Soheil Ghiasi <ghiasi@ucdavis.edu>
      Contributing author: Matthew Guthaus <mrg@soe.ucsc.edu>
      Contributing author: Umit Y Ogras <uogras@andrew.cmu.edu>
      Contributing author: Marc Riedel <mriedel@umn.edu>
      Contributing author: Lin Yuan <yuanl@synopsys.com>

(2) What is an Embedded Antenna?
      Author: Janine Love, EE Times

(3) Paper Submission Deadlines
      From: Debjit Sinha <debjit.sinha@us.ibm.com>

(4) Upcoming Conferences and Symposia
      From: Debjit Sinha <debjit.sinha@us.ibm.com>

(5) Upcoming Funding Opportunities
      From: Qinru Qiu <qqiu@binghamton.edu>

(6) Call for Nominations: TODAES Editor-in-Chief

===============================================================================

Dear ACM/SIGDA members,

Recently proposed changes to the SIGDA  bylaws were approved by the ACM SIG
Governing Board Executive Committee. Under recently approved procedural
changes by the SGB, certain minor changes in bylaws can be approved by the SGB
EC and sent on to the ACM Executive committee for approval without a formal
vote of the membership.

However, SIGDA members have 30 days to register any objections. If at least 3%
of  SIGDA members object, then the bylaws changes must be voted on by the
entire membership.  Any challenges can be sent to Donna Cappo, Director of SIG
Services at: cappo@hq.acm.org  and must be received by 03/23/08.

Summary of changes:

* The members of the EC will include the Chair, and Chairs for Awards,
Conferences, Technical Activities, Educational Activities,  Communications,
and Finance; one of the named Chairs will also be a Vice-Chair. The Past Chair
is not an elected official and may fill one of the named Chair positions.

* The officers are elected for three-year terms beginning July 1 of 2009. No
extension of terms shall be allowed.

* If the Past Chair does not wish to fill one of the named Chair positions, a
seventh EC member will be selected from the slate and the Past Chair will
have an ex-officio position on the Advisory Board.

Current SIGDA bylaws can be viewed at :
http://www.acm.org/sigs/bylaws-contents/da_bylaws/

Proposed bylaws: http://www.sigda.org/proposed_bylaws.doc


Diana Marculescu, Chair, ACM SIGDA;
Qing Wu, E-Newsletter Editor;
Matthew Guthaus, E-Newsletter Associate Editor;
Marc Riedel, E-Newsletter Associate Editor;
Qinru Qiu, E-Newsletter Associate Editor;
Debjit Sinha, E-Newsletter Associate Editor;
Lin Yuan, E-Newsletter Associate Editor;
Soheil Ghiasi, E-Newsletter Associate Editor;

===============================================================================

SIGDA News
-----------------------

"IBM Unveils Atomic Memory Advance"
http://www.eetimes.com/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=206801335
The design of atomic-scale magnetic memories got a boost Friday (Feb. 22) 
with an announcement from IBM Corp. researchers that they have manipulated 
individual cobalt atoms.

"Nokia Exhibits Nanotech-Based Phone Concepts"
http://www.eetimes.com/news/design/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=206801676
Mobile handset giant Nokia has given the first glimpses of the research 
it is doing in collaboration with the University of Cambridge when it 
unveiled a shape changing mobile device concept based on nanotechnology. 

"Multicore Systems-on-Chip Can Handle Embedded Designs"
http://www.eetimes.com/news/design/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=206900262
Many design problems are conveniently concurrent and are easy to attack 
with multiple processor cores, though not necessarily using a symmetric 
multiprocessing (SMP) architecture. Big semiconductor and server vendors 
currently offer SMP multicore processors, which are good for solving 
certain kinds of design problems. And large servers and server farms support 
applications such as Web query requests that follow a SAMD model: single 
application, multiple data (an over- simplification, perhaps, but a useful one).

"Pursuing Synthetic Life, Dazzled by Reality"
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/05/science/05angi.html?8dpc
When scientists announced on Jan. 24 that they had reconstituted the complete
set of genes for a microbe using just a few bottles of chemicals, the feat was
hailed as a kind of shining Nike moment in the field of synthetic biology, the
attempt to piece together living organisms from inert scratch.

Many Americans Find Nanotechnology 'Morally Unacceptable,' NSF Study Finds
http://www.abcnews.go.com/Technology/DyeHard/story?id=4348729&page=1
If scientists could produce a tiny robot that could travel through your body
and heal damaged tissue, eradicate disease-carrying microbes, and even wipe out
a cancerous tumor, would you support their efforts?  Maybe not, especially if
you are an American.

"Rhines to EDA: End 'Endless Verification'"
http://www.eetimes.com/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=206801406
If it hopes to cut the cost of design verification, the EDA industry must 
embrace a combination of formal methods, transaction-level modeling (TLM) 
techniques and intelligent testbenches, according to Walden Rhines, chairman 
and CEO of Mentor Graphics Corp.

"IBM, AMD Demo First 'Full Field' EUV Test Chip"
http://www.edn.com/article/CA6535410.html
At the SPIE Advanced Lithography conference being held this week in San 
Jose, research partners Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) and IBM announced a 
working test chip that uses extreme ultra-violet (EUV) lithography for 
the critical first layer of metal connections across the entire chip, 
compared to previous projects that utilized EUV for working chip components 
that were only .narrow field. and covered just a small portion of the design.

"Compute Accelerator System Widens FPGA Choice"
http://www.chipdesignmag.com/display.php?articleId=2007
Or-Akiva, Israel. GiDEL, a leading supplier of FPGA-based compute 
accelerator systems, today announced that the new PROCStarIII. family of 
products is now available with the largest capacity and fastest FPGA, the 
Stratix III 340L from Altera. With four such FPGA devices, pipelined SoC 
designs up to 12 million ASIC gates in size can be prototyped and verified. 

"Joint-Design Speeds Auto Applications"
http://www.chipdesignmag.com/display.php?articleId=2018
Embedded World - Freescale Semiconductor and STMicroelectronics (NYSE:STM), 
leading semiconductor suppliers to the automotive industry, have unveiled 
the first four automotive Power Architecture(TM) microcontroller (MCU) 
products resulting from the two companies' joint design program, initiated 
two years ago. The two companies have achieved first silicon from their 
respective wafer fabs in Austin, Texas, and Agrate Brianza (Milan), Italy, 
for four automotive MCUs targeting powertrain, body, instrument cluster 
and safety/chassis applications. 

"Software and RTOS Synthesis: The Next Step in Software Development?"
http://www.embedded.com/design/206900628
To investigate the use of software synthesis technology, the authors set 
out to use the SynthOS software synthesis tool to generate an embedded 
real-time operating system (RTOS).

"The Multicore Era Seeks A Parallel Paradigm"
http://electronicdesign.com/Articles/ArticleID/18159/18159.html
Parallel programming is hard. But debugging it is even harder. Unfortunately,
taking advantage of multicore solutions like Intel's 80-core TeraScale
prototype will require some type of parallel-programming technique.

"Old Ideas In New Design = Lower Power, Higher Performance"
http://electronicdesign.com/Articles/ArticleID/18167/18167.html
Elegant designs have always blended old and new while meeting certain criteria.
In the case of VIA Technology's Isaiah architecture, these criteria included
higher performance, lower power consumption, and pin-compatibility with the
company's C7 line of x86-compatible microprocessors. The result was a chip
design with twice to four times the performance within the same package and
power envelope. 

"Power Mode Technologies Verify Today's SoCs"
http://www.eetimes.com/news/design/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=206900466
The power architectures on today's power-cycled system-on-chip designs can be
distressingly complex. Multiple power domains with many power modes require a
thorough verification process. 
 
"Microsoft offers productivity tools for embedded device programming"
http://www.eetimes.com/news/design/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=206900533
Microsoft is making some of the graphical programming aids and built-in
plumbing that characterize desktop Visual Studio available to small device
programmers, who in the past have been left mired in language syntax to fend as
best they could for themselves. 


==============================================================================

What is an Embedded Antenna?
----------------------------

http://www.eetimes.com/rss/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=206900576

Author: Janine Love, EE Times


==============================================================================

Paper Submission Deadlines:
----------------------------

ISLPED'08 - Int'l Symposium on Low Power Electronics and Design
Bangalore, India
Aug 11-13, 2008
Deadline: Mar 3, 2008
http://www.islped.org/

MWSCAS'08 - Int'l Midwest Symposium on Circuits and Systems
Knoxville, TN
Aug 10-13, 2008
Deadline: Mar 12, 2008
http://www.eecs.utk.edu/mwscas/

FPL'08 - Int'l Conference on Field-Programmable Logic and Applications
Heidelberg, Germany
Sep 8-10, 2008
Deadline: Mar 16, 2008
http://fpl.org/

IWLS'08 - Int'l Workshop on Logic & Synthesis
San Diego, CA
Jun 4-6, 2008
Deadline: Mar 19, 2008
http://www.iwls.org/

SBCCI 2008 - 21st Symposium on Integrated Circuits and Systems Design (25 years
edition)
Gramado, Brazil
Sep 1-7, 2008
Deadline: Mar 24, 2008
http://www.sbc.org.br/sbcci

PACT'08 - Int'l Conference on Parallel Architectures and Compilation
Techniques
Toronto, Canada
Oct 25-29, 2008
Deadline: Mar 28, 2008
http://www.pactconf.org/

ICCAD.08 . Int.l Conference on Computer-Aided Design
San Jose, CA
Nov 10-13, 2008
Deadline: Apr 14, 2008
http://www.iccad.com/

ESWEEK'08 - Embedded Systems Week (CASES, CODES+ISSS, and EMSOFT)
Atlanta, GA
Oct 19-24, 2008
Deadline: Apr 14, 2008
http://www.esweek.org/

ICM'08 - Int'l Conference on Microelectronics (technically co-sponsored by
IEEE-VSATC)
Sharjah, UAE
Dec 14-16, 2008
Deadline: May 1, 2008
http://www.ieee-icm.com/

ASP-DAC'09 - Asia and South Pacific Design Automation Conference (sponsored by
SIGDA)
Yokohama, Japan
Jan 19-22, 2009
Deadline: Jul 14, 2008
http://www.aspdac.com/aspdac2009/


==============================================================================

Upcoming Symposia, Conferences and Workshops:
---------------------------------------------

DATE'08 - Design Automation and Test in Europe (sponsored by SIGDA)
Munich, Germany
Mar 10-14, 2008
http://www.date-conference.com/

ISQED'08 - Int'l Symposium on Quality Electronic Design
San Jose, CA
Mar 17-19, 2008
http://www.isqed.org/

SPL'08 - Southern Conference on Programmable Logic
Bariloche-Patagonia, Argentina
Mar 26-28, 2008
http://www.splconf.org/

SLIP'08 - Int'l Workshop on System Level Interconnect Prediction
Newcastle, UK
Apr 5-6, 2008
http://www.sliponline.org/

ISVLSI'08 - Annual Symposium on VLSI
Montpellier, France
Apr 7-9, 2008
http://www.lirmm.fr/isvlsi2008/

ASYNC'08: Int'l Symposium on Asynchronous Circuits and Systems
Newcastle, UK
Apr 7-11, 2008
http://async.org.uk/async2008/

NOCS'08 - Int'l Symposium on Networks-on-Chips
Newcastle, UK
Apr 7-11, 2008
http://async.org.uk/nocs2008/

RCE'08 - Reconfigurable Computing Education
Montpellier, France
Apr 10, 2008
http://helios.informatik.uni-kl.de/RCeducation08/

ISPD'08 - Int'l Symposium on Physical Design (sponsored by SIGDA)
Portland, OR
Apr 13-16, 2008
http://www.ispd.cc/

RAW'08 - Reconfigurable Architectures Workshop
Miami, FL
Apr 14-15, 2008
http://www.ece.lsu.edu/vaidy/raw/

RFID'08 - Conference on RFID
Las Vegas, NV
Apr 16-17, 2008
http://www.ieee-rfid.org/

GLSVLSI'08 - Great Lakes Symposium on VLSI (Sponsored by SIGDA)
Orlando, FL
May 4-6, 2008
http://www.glsvlsi.org/

ISCAS'08 - Int'l Symposium on Circuits and Systems
Seattle, WA
May 18-21, 2008
http://iscas2008.org/

EWME'08 - European Workshop on Microelectronics Education
Budapest, Hungary
May 28-30, 2008
http://www.eet.bme.hu/new/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=129&Itemid=160

RSP'08 - Int'l Workshop on Rapid System Prototyping
Monterey, CA
Jun 2-5, 2008
http://www.rsp-workshop.org/

ICAC'08 - Int'l Conference on Autonomic Computing
Chicago, IL
Jun 2-6, 2008
http://www.acis.ufl.edu/~icac2008/

MEMOCODE'08 - Int'l Conference on Formal Methods and Models for Codesign
(sponsored by SIGDA)
Anaheim, CA
Jun 5-7, 2008
http://svl1.cs.pdx.edu/memocode08/

DAC'08 - Design Automation Conference (sponsored by SIGDA)
Anaheim, CA
Jun 9-13, 2008
http://www.dac.com/

ACSD'08 - Int'l Conference on Application of Concurrency to System Design
(sponsored by SIGDA)
Xi.an, China
Jun 23-27, 2008
http://ictt.xidian.edu.cn/acsd2008/Pages/ACSD_main.jsp

CAV'08 - Int'l Conference on Computer Aided Verification
Princeton, PA
Jul 7-14, 2007
http://www.princeton.edu/cav2008/


===============================================================================

Upcoming Funding Opportunities
------------------------------------

NASA

Applied Information Systems Research
Deadline: July 23, 2008
http://nspires.nasaprs.com/external/solicitations/summary.do?method=init&solId=%7B6FE1E776-C046-383D-8475-62A73BECFA4C%7D&path=open


DOC

Electronics and Electrical Engineering (EEEL) Grants Program
Deadline: June 15, 2008
http://origin.www.gpoaccess.gov/fr/.
(The full call can be located by searching the Federal Register for "fr25ja08N
Measurement, Science and Engineering Grants Programs." )


Microsoft

Power Aware Computing
Deadline: March 11, 2008
http://research.microsoft.com/ur/us/fundingopps/rfps/PowerAware_RFP.aspx

Safe and Scalable Multicore Computing
Deadline: March 13, 2008
http://research.microsoft.com/ur/us/fundingopps/rfps/SafeScalableMulticore_RFP.aspx


Packard Foundation, David and Lucille

Fellowships for Science and Engineering
Deadline: March 15, 2008
http://www.packard.org/genericDetails.aspx?RootCatID=3&CategoryID=152


James S. McDonnell Foundation

Studying Complex Systems - 21st Century Science 
Collaborative Activity
Deadline: continuous
http://www.jsmf.org/programs/cs/


DOE

Advanced Scientific Computing Research (ASCR)  (DE-PS02-08ER08-01)
Deadline: September 30, 2008
http://www.science.doe.gov/grants/FAPN08-01.html


DOD

Cognitive Technology Threat Warning System (CT2WS)
Deadline: April 11, 2008
http://fedbizopps.cos.com/cgi-bin/getRec?id=20070412a1

Modeling and Simulation for Information Systems Research
Deadline:   FY 09 should be submitted by June 1, 2008
            FY 10 should be submitted by June 1, 2009
http://fedbizopps.cos.com/cgi-bin/getRec?id=20061030a9

Military Networking Technology for Global Information 
Exchange (GIE)
Deadline: Continuous until September, 2008
http://fedbizopps.cos.com/cgi-bin/getRec?id=20040909a11

Enabling Technologies for Modeling and Simulation (BAA-03-12-IFKA)
Deadline: September 30, 2008
http://www.fbo.gov/spg/USAF/AFMC/AFRLRRS/BAA-03-12-IFKA/Modification%2005.html

SPINS in Semiconductors
Deadline: December 31, 2008
http://heron.nrl.navy.mil/contracts/0708baa/baa.htm

Artificial Intelligence Technologies
Deadline: December 31, 2008
http://heron.nrl.navy.mil/contracts/0708baa/baa.htm

Quantum Information Science and Technology
Deadline: December 31, 2008
http://heron.nrl.navy.mil/contracts/0708baa/baa.htm

Microsystems Technology Office-Wide 
Deadline: January 14, 2009
http://www.fbo.gov/spg/ODA/DARPA/CMO/BAA07-18/Attachments.html

BAA for Simulation and Training Technology R&D
Deadline: Continuous until December 31, 2010
http://www.rdecom.army.mil/STTC/2006_N61339-05-R-0095__BAA_FY06_Amendment_0001.pdf

Army Research Office (ARO) Broad Agency Announcement for 
Basic and Applied Scientific Research (W911NF-07-R-0003)
Deadline: Continuous through September 30, 2011
http://www.arl.army.mil/www/default.cfm?Action=6&Page=8

ARL/ARO Core Broad Agency Announcement for Basic and 
Applied Scientific Research for Fiscal Years 2007 
through 2011 (W911NF-07-R-0001)
Deadline: Continuous through September 30, 2011
http://www.arl.army.mil/www/default.cfm?Action=6&Page=8

High Density Optical Memory
Deadline: Continuous
http://www.afosr.af.mil/pdfs/afosr_baa_2007_1.pdf

Quantum Electronic Solids
Deadline: Continuous
http://www.afosr.af.mil/pdfs/afosr_baa_2007_1.pdf

Distributed Intelligence
Deadline: Continuous
http://www.afosr.af.mil/pdfs/afosr_baa_2007_1.pdf

Sensory System (AFOSR BAA 2007-1)
Deadline: Continuous
http://www.afosr.af.mil/pdfs/afosr_baa_2007_1.pdf

 
NSF

Emerging Models and Technologies for Computation (EMT)
Deadline: March 13, 2008
http://www.nsf.gov/funding/pgm_summ.jsp?pims_id=503220&org=CISE&from=home

Assembling the Tree of Life (ATOL)
Deadline: March 14, 2008
http://www.nsf.gov/funding/pgm_summ.jsp?pims_id=5129&org=CISE&from=home

Theoretical Foundations 2008 (TF08)
Deadline: March 19, 2008
http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2008/nsf08518/nsf08518.htm

Petascale Computing Resource Allocations (PRAC) - NSF 08-529
Deadline: March 31, 2008
http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2008/nsf08529/nsf08529.htm

High End Computing University Research Activity (HECURA) - NSF 08-531
Deadline: April 8, 2008
http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2008/nsf08531/nsf08531.htm

Computer Systems Research (CSR) Program - NSF 08-538
Deadline: April 23, 2008
http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2008/nsf08538/nsf08538.htm

Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship 
Program (IGERT)
Deadline: April 24, 2008
http://nsf.gov/funding/pgm_summ.jsp?pims_id=12759&org=CISE&from=home

Expeditions in Computing
Deadline: Letter of Intent Due Date(s) (required): 
    July 10, 2008
    July 10, Annually Thereafter
Preliminary Proposal Due Date(s) (required): 
    September 10, 2008
    September 10, Annually Thereafter
http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2007/nsf07592/nsf07592.htm

Strategic Technologies for Cyberinfrastructure (STCI)
Deadline: August 14, 2008
http://www.nsf.gov/funding/pgm_summ.jsp?pims_id=500066

Collaborative Research in Computational Neuroscience (CRCNS)
Deadline: February 26, 2008
          October 30, 2008
http://www.nsf.gov/funding/pgm_summ.jsp?pims_id=5147&org=CISE&from=home

High Performance Computing Acquisition: Towards a Petascale 
Computing Environment for Science and Engineering - NSF 05-625
Deadline: November 28, 2008
http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2005/nsf05625/nsf05625.htm


===============================================================================

Call for Nominations: TODAES Editor-in-Chief
---------------------------------------------

ACM Transactions on Design Automation of Electronic Systems (TODAES) 
 
Call for Nominations -- Editor-in-Chief 
 
Nominations, including self nominations, are invited for the next
Editor-in-Chief of the ACM Transactions on Design Automation of Electronic
Systems (TODAES).  Please see the journal website at http://todaes.acm.org/.
The position is for a three- year term, starting on June 1, 2008. 
 
Candidates should be well-established researchers in areas related to design
automation of electronic systems, as widely conceived. They should also have
broad experience as journal editors and conference program committee chairs, or
members.  Nominations, including a short (2 page) resume, a pointer to online
full curriculum vitae, and a vision statement for the journal (of no more than
two pages) should be sent by April 15, 2008 via email to Steven Levitan
<levitan@pitt.edu>. 
 
For more information about Editor-in-Chief positions at ACM, see:   
http://www.acm.org/pubs/editors_manual.html 
 
Final recommendation(s) will be made to the ACM Publications Board by a Search
Committee consisting of Steven Levitan (chair), University of Pittsburgh; Jason
Cong, University of California, Los Angeles; Niraj Jha, Princeton University;
Malgorzata Marek-Sadowska, University of California, Santa Barbara, Irith
Pomeranz, Purdue University; and Bryan Preas, PARC. 
 
Nominations received after April 15, 2008 will also be considered if the
position is not yet filled. 


==============================================================================
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If you wish to restrict the distribution of your work or retain copyright for
your contribution, please contact the editors.

Last revised by I. Markov - 05/21/06
==============================================================================
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</pre>