Subject: Patrick Pistilli, founder of DAC, to receive Phil Kaufman Award

From: Andreas Kuehlmann <kuehl=user domain=cadence hot calm>

Hi John,

It gives me great pleasure to let you and your readers know that this year's
Phil Kaufman Award recipient is Patrick Pistilli, chairman of MP Associates.
While many of your readers may not know Pat, they should because he was
instrumental in creating the EDA profession.
 
As a young engineer in the early 1960's at Bell Labs in New Jersey, Pat
envisioned a place for engineers to exchange ideas about techniques for
better automating electronics design.  In 1964, he began what was then
called the Society to Help Avoid Redundant Effort (SHARE) that was later 
renamed the Design Automation Conference (DAC).

(An interesting side note: Only expensive batch simulators were available
at the time, and most design was done by hand.)

To say that DAC and EDA are Pat's life work would be an understatement.

Let's look at some highlights:

   - The first SHARE workshop had Pat as the chair.  It was in 1964 in
     Atlantic City, N.J. with 132 professionals sharing their work and
     ideas on what was then known as "CAD".

   - Pat went on to chair DAC two more times (1965, 1966) and is the
     only person to serve as chair more than once.

   - Pat moved his family to Boulder in 1969 to work for a new Bell Labs
     facility.  Pat, with wife Marie, continued to manage DAC as
     volunteers throughout the move and into the early 1980s.

   - From 1984 when exhibits were first co-located with the technical
     conference, DAC became the focal point for the commercialization of
     EDA software and hardware.  DAC had 40 exhibitors in Albuquerque,
     New Mexico, a town that ran out of hotel rooms.  Many of the 1,500
     or so attendees were staying in hotels an hour away.

   - For the DAC Party, held outdoors at the Hilton Hotel in downtown
     Albuquerque, Pat hired Hopi rain dancers with assurances from the
     locals that it wouldn't rain.  After all, New Mexico rarely gets
     rain in the summer.  Not 15 minutes after the performance, it
     started pouring rain.  The tents were sagging from the weight of
     the water and people were holding tablecloths over their heads.
     Curiously enough, it didn't rain anywhere but near the Hilton!

   - Until 1984, Pat and Marie managed a tight community of DAC volunteers
     for the technical program and organizing committee from their
     basement filled with papers, programs and the giveaways.

   - In 1984, with the advent of commercially available EDA tools, it was
     clear that the Design Automation Conference was poised for growth
     and would require full-time management.  Pat retired from Bell Labs,
     and with Marie, formed MP Associates, Inc., securing the contract
     to manage DAC and its newly formed exhibition beginning in 1985.
     Susie Horn was an early hire and remains an MP Associates employee
     today.  MP Associates has a warehouse filled with proceedings and
     memorabilia from the last 25+ years of DAC.

   - A surprise visit by Ronald Reagan to Las Vegas in 1986 while DAC was
     going on nearly brought the conference to a halt.  Pat negotiated
     with the US Secret Service to let DAC continue.  He met and had his
     photo taken with the President.

   - By the time Pat retired from Bell Labs in 1984, he had spent 25 years
     there, developing systems such as Bell Labs Automated Design System
     (BLADES) and MATACUP that served as a foundation platform for the
     many early notable CAD systems.

   - Perhaps Pat is proudest of his DAC Professional Development Fund to
     support the research community.  This fund has awarded $2.5 million
     in student scholarships and travel grants over the past 15 years.

   - Pat and Marie officially retired from MP Associates in July 2000,
     but continue to attend DAC and are always available to offer support
     and guidance to the MP Associates team, which continues to be run
     by their family members.

   - Over the past 47 years, there have been 4,944 technical research
     papers presented at DAC.

   - Since 1964, there have been a total of 312,057 DAC registrations.

Pat has made volunteering and community service a part of his entire career:

   - Actively participating in the Bell Telephone Pioneers, building a
     beeping softball that allowed the vision impaired to play softball.

   - Volunteering extensively for the Special Olympics for many years and
     doing pro-bono construction for Attention Homes, a local half-way
     house for troubled teens.

   - Serving on an advisory panel for the Engineering program at Texas
     Southern University in Houston.

   - Donating scholarships to the University of Colorado and has been a
     football and basketball season ticket holder for 41 years.

   - Championing the formation of the ACSEE scholarships for high school
     students from under-represented minorities to enroll in engineering
     or computer science.

Pat Pistilli will be honored at the Phil Kaufman Award Dinner next Tuesday,
Oct 12 at the San Jose Marriott Hotel.  The entire EDA industry is invited
to attend.  Registration is at: www.edac.org/events10/kaufman/index.jsp.

The Phil Kaufman Award, presented annually since 1994, honors individuals
who have had a demonstrable impact on the field of EDA.  It was established
as a tribute to deceased EDA industry pioneer Phil Kaufman, who turned
innovative technologies such as silicon compilation and emulation into
businesses that have benefited electronic designers.

    - Andreas Kuehlmann
      Cadence Berkeley Labs                      Berkeley, CA