Gabe Moretti
Editor-in-Chief

In addition to an interesting letter commenting on Richard Goering's article in last month's issue, this month we feature two articles and a Viewpoint, and we inaugurate a new section dedicated to news about the upcoming DAC. 

The first featured article is written by Geoffrey James and deals with the intended and unintended impacts of government regulations on our industry.  Geoffrey highlights the unintended side effects of well-intentioned environmental regulations against the use of lead in electronics products; the hurdles that the Sarbanes/Oxley reporting requirements have erected for our industry; and the lack of adequate IP protection to safeguard corporate revenue.  Our industry runs on engineering development and discovery, and often we forget that our society is regulated by financial and political considerations that, at times, are not aligned with our best interests.  I believe that one of the roles of DAC is to expand the vision of each attendee - not just by offering a glimpse of a new technology or career opportunity - but also to show how forces mostly outside our immediate professional interests can impact our careers.

Peggy Aycinena's interview with Dr. Robert Brayton - this year winner of the Kaufman Award - gives us a glimpse of the human side of a professional who has dedicated 47 years of his life to our industry.  I found the article informative, illuminating, and, yes, invigorating.  I hope you will enjoy it as well.  The article shows a professional who is at home not only in Berkeley's ivory towers, but also in the world of working engineers and aspiring entrepreneurs.

Al Dunlop, president of the IEEE Council on EDA, is the author of this month's Viewpoint.  He is renewing calls for further support of research efforts in our industry and proposes the establishment of a centralized EDA research program to serve the entire industry.  Of course, the U.S. government has in the past funded a significant amount of EDA research and development, and it still does, but Al points out that there is no indigenous program dedicated to foster research in EDA, coordinate the link with universities, and make the results available to the entire industry.  This is a topic likely to generate material for our Letters to the Editor section.

As work progresses in developing the conference program and all the other activities associated with DAC 2008, we will keep you informed and up-to-date in a new section of this publication.  Through this mechanism, you will be able to quickly identify any items that deal directly with the upcoming conference and may require action on your part.

I hope you will enjoy this month's issue.