( ESNUG 513 Item 7 ) -------------------------------------------- [10/26/12]
Subject: The EDA Old Guard remembers Ivan Pesic's "colorful" personality
> It's my sad duty to inform you that Ivan Pesic of Silvaco died of cancer
> two days ago in Japan. His wife, 1 son, & 1 daughter survive him. Ivan
> was born in Resnik, Montenegro on Sept 13, 1951.
>
> - from http://www.deepchip.com/items/0510-05.html
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I'd like to offer my condolences to the Pesic family on behalf
of myself and Tanner Research. We both began our companies in
the 1980s, when a 4.77 MHz processor was considered bleeding edge.
While Tanner EDA products competed with Silvaco over the decades,
especially in layout and SPICE, Ivan was an early ally in showing
the IBM PC worked for chip design; something quite radical when
the big guys focused selling EDA soley on Unix workstations.
I also respect Ivan as a fellow founder and longtime leader of a
self-funded EDA company -- a path that, I can personally attest,
is not easy to follow.
I wish his son Iliya and his Silvaco colleagues all the best as
they carry on in Ivan's stead.
- John Tanner, Founder of Tanner EDA
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I'm sorry to hear about Ivan's passing. He had no use for the likes
of me. He had no VCs nor investors to my knowledge. He bootstrapped
his business. He took on Meta and won at a time when no one did that
sort of thing -- or at least not successfully.
On the marketing front who can forget the non-PC advertising Ivan had
on the side of Route 101 with basically pretty girls telling you that
SMARTSPICE was the only answer?
I'm looking at an eeCAD.com coffee cup on my desk right now that
explains the difference between hourly, term and perpetual licenses
in very non-subtle visuals. Cracks me up every time I look at it.
You've got to like mavericks like Ivan. He was from the era of open
range / wild west business practices. A true pioneer has passed and
I doubt we'll see another one like Ivan soon. A real loss for us all.
- Jim Hogan of Vista Ventures LLC
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When I was working at DataQuest back in 1996, Ivan tried to pull me
into a TCAD lawsuit that involved Roy Jewell's TMA. Ivan wanted to
subpoena all my DataQuest TCAD marketshare data -- which would have
seriously hurt DataQuest's business. Long story short, when I went
to the Santa Clara Superior Court to testify, my lawyer stopped me at
the door. My lawyer said: "The judge just told Ivan that not only
was he throwing Ivan's case out of court, but that the next time he
saw Ivan, he'll have him thrown in jail."
Ivan was a character. He added color to EDA by way of lawsuits and
billboards. I'm going to miss him.
- Gary Smith of Gary Smith EDA
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I first met Ivan in 1991 while I was working at TI. He tried to
sell us his SPICE modeling tool called 'UTMOST' into TI. Although
TI didn't buy it, I was impressed by Ivan's colorful and highly
competitive personality.
At that time it I guess it was the only way he could build an EDA
business without external funding. We stayed in contact over the
years since that first meeting. He stayed true to his belief, and
ran the business in his own unique way -- and Silvaco bloomed.
It is sad to see one of the old guard has passed away.
- Jue Hsien Chern, CEO of Atoptech
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I was sorry to read about Ivan. ClioSoft is also self-funded. We
both understand the challenges of running on cash, but also the joy
of not having venture capitalists breathing down your neck.
I met Ivan only once when he started eeCAD.com. A straight shooter
who did not mince words or suffer fools. Remember his controversial
ad about getting EDA by the hour, day or forever?
At one DAC he decided the show was not worth his time, so he closed
his booth and left a note telling people to visit his website!
It's a shame to lose one of the few colorful leaders in EDA who was
willing to take chances and do what he thought was right.
- Srinath Anantharaman, CEO of ClioSoft
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I was saddened to hear that Ivan Pesic has died. His reputation as
a colorful EDA entrepreneur was well known. He took university
CAD/TCAD research and turned it into tools that sold well.
He experimented with business models with his EEcad.com site where
customers downloaded/ran EDA tools on their local computers and use
was billed in real-time. He even had a rent-to-own option.
Ivan was also infamous for his politically incorrect advertising
campaigns on Hwy 101 in San Jose. You never flew in nor out of
San Jose Airport without seeing a Silvaco ad near your gate.
Entrepreneur, innovator and controversial promoter; Ivan was all of
these and more. His spirit will be missed.
- Prakash Narain, CEO of Real Intent
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I met Ivan back in 2004 with Rob Mathews, my VP of Engineering back
in my Sequence days. We wanted to license Silvaco's field solver
to validate the results of our parasitic extraction tool.
Ivan was very proud to show us around *his* Silvaco campus, talk
about *his* technology and he came across as a "force of nature"!
One could clearly see why Silvaco was a "one-man show".
Ivan made us laugh with his dry humor and showed extreme confidence
in what he was doing -- including all the companies that he wanted
to sue! It was a memorable meeting. May God bless his soul!
- Vic Kulkarni, Senior VP and GM of Apache Design
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I am Silvaco distributor sales guy in mainland China. I have read
the article you write in your Deepchip website that Ivan died.
I liked Ivan's style and will miss him.
- Luo Jing of Vendorchain, Inc.
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In 2004, Ivan helped our young company with a sweatheart TCAD deal
that freed us to do our research. Later that year, I was traveling
to Santa Clara and made arrangements to visit Silvaco. I arrived
ready to meet the founder of the world's leading TCAD supplier.
I'd been waiting in the lobby for a while when I saw a ratty old
red pick-up arrive and the scruffy looking fellow driving it stooped
to pick weeds that had sprouted next to the door.
A couple of minutes later, the fellow with a hand full of weeds
stepped in and asked if I was Doug Hackler. He was Ivan!
What Ivan demonstrated that day taught me an important lesson: a
great CEO is willing to do ANY job that needs to be done. Importance
isn't defined by the car you drive or the clothes you wear but by
what you can do and what you can accomplish.
- Doug Hackler, CEO of American Semiconductor
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The Top 10 Reasons Why I Will Never Forget Ivan Pesic of Silvaco
10. Denny's Sampler Platter Remote Staff Meetings
9. The Night I Spent As His Roommate At Motel 6
8. He Might Commit Unspeakable Acts Against
The Pope
7. His Voicemail Message
6. He Will Kill Cadence
5. Advanced Real Time Video Conferencing
4. Threatened Narita Airport Security With A Knife
And Still Got On the Plane
3. He Might Commit Unspeakable Acts Against
Someone's Mother
2. His Love Of The French
And The #1 Reason I Will Never Forget Ivan Pesic
1. He Will Take Silvaco Public Next Year
As you can guess, it was never a dull moment working around Ivan.
I'm going to miss him terribly.
- Russell Graves, Radiation Engineer at Orbital Sciences
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Soon after I started ASC, I met Ivan at DAC. We were both from the
school of No VC Funding. That was over 20 years ago. I used to
bounce my crazy biz strategies ideas off of him and he'd tell me
why I was wrong.
I am going to miss him.
- Jake Karrfalt, CEO of Alternative System Concepts, Inc.
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When I was a Silvaco employee, Ivan had given us tough and happy times.
We still remember many years ago that Silvaco will go IPO. His ideas
really rock the world.
But sometimes we really hate him as Ivan would just pop up at 2:00 AM
U.S. time on his Advance Video System to give us a shock.
Ivan has 13 or 14 of them in the U.S. Office which can call and see you
anytime without you picking it up.
He has devoted all his life with Silvaco business. We really saluted
him and enjoy working with him over the years. I was sad to hear that
he died. Please convey my and my colleagues condolences to his family.
- Desmond Hor, an ex Silvaco Singapore employee
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The industry has lost one of its most passionate early EDA pioneers.
With 28-years at the helm of a self-funded EDA company, his life's
work was truly remarkable. My condolences to Ivan's family.
- Kathryn Kranen, CEO of Jasper DA
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Please convey my and Teledyne's condolences to his family.
- Gene Dines, Sr. Test Engineer at Teledyne
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A very nice read of a man with principles... I am sad for his
family, and the industry.
- Kathleen Catalano of ARM
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As a technologist Ivan was excellent. As a entrepreneur he was a
bold and pioneering force among his peers over a long time. Our
company today benefits directly from his work, so his legacy carries
on with us. We are all sorry to hear this sad news having known
Ivan for many years now.
- Wesley Morris, CEO of Silicon Space Tech
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Ivan Pesic's passing reminds us that while we strut and fret our hour
upon the EDA stage, the outside world continues unaware of, but not
unaffected by, our stories.
My condolences to Ivan's family and friends.
- John Sanguinetti, Founder of Chronologic Simulation
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I tried to see him 2 weeks back when I was in California, but was
told Ivan was in Japan on business with an open ticket. Your note
about his death, John, has now has filled in the details.
Very sorry to read of his passing. I liked working with him a lot.
- Sumit DasGupta, Sr VP of Si2
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Editor's Note: For those of you who may have an additional "colorful" Ivan
story you wish to contribute, drop me an email and I'll add it. - John
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