SAN FRANCISCO--We've known for many years how crucial the electronics ecosystem is to system design enablement in the era of ultra-deep submicron design.
ARM in particular has done an effective job of building a community and ecosystem around its IP cores. To illustrate how important ecosystem is to effective design and to celebrate innovation, ARM sponsored the ARM Step Challenge at the 51st Design Automation Conference here.
It was no coincidence that a wearable device--the FitBit--was the focus of the promotion. Wearables is a potentially huge market in the coming years, and the FitBit is an example of astonishing device integration coupled with an intense focus on power management.
At the Moscone Center here, partners were outfitted with FitBits and challenged to wrack up as many steps as possible during three days of DAC. It was an opportunity to create some friendly rivalry among ecosystem partners and to describe the technology and its future evolution.
Here's a segment (below) in which Sean O'Kane and I discuss the program and the technology. If you're interested in getting in on the fun (and it's great fun and networking), word is that the good folks at ARM will open up the field for ARM TechCon this fall (Oct. 1-3) in Santa Clara.
- Tiffany Quan, Sonics (58,116 steps)
- Ranjeet Mankikar, NetSpeed Systems (53,247)
- Your Faithful Correspondent (me), Cadence (52,827)
- John Heinlein, ARM (51,993)
- Brad Nemire, ARM (48,750)
- Phil Dworsky, Synopsys, (42,677)
- Katia Ribacenko, Memoir Systems (42,521)
- Bill Neifert, Carbon Design Systems (39,966)
- Jay Yantchev, VLAB Works (38,968)
- Hau Lam, TSSI (36,517)
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