One of the heart and soul technical themes of DesignCon is how signal integrity impacts the design chain from chip design to end–product performance. The business analogy is how this same design chain pulls together to achieve business efficiencies necessary to achieve profitability for its technical work. This panel will relate how each company ... a link in the design chain... has, by sticking to their knitting and outsourcing those functions that do not add to their company's value proposition, increased their efficiency and profitability. The panel consists of the following segments: (a) Chip Design, (b) Package Level Design (c) Board Level Design (d) System Level Design (the end–use product).

Chairperson:

Jack Harding
Chief Executive Officer
eSilicon

Mr. Harding is responsible for eSilicon's overall leadership, strategy and management. He brings more than 25 years of management experience in the semiconductor industry, spanning the EDA and IC sectors. Prior to co-founding eSilicon in 2000 he was the President and CEO of Cadence Designs Systems. During his tenure at Cadence the company was the world's largest supplier of electronics design software and provided the greatest shareholder value in the history of the company. Mr. Harding entered Cadence upon the acquisition of Cooper & Chyan Technology (CCT), where he served as the President and CEO, and was responsible for leading the company to an IPO. Prior to CCT Mr. Harding served as the Executive Vice President of Zycad Corporation. He began his career with distinction at IBM.

Speakers:

Dr. Aart J. de Geus
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Synopsys, Inc.

Since co-founding Synopsys in 1986, Dr. Aart de Geus has expanded Synopsys from a start-up synthesis enterprise to a world leader in electronic design automation (EDA). Dr. de Geus is one of the world's leading logic simulation and logic synthesis experts. Among his prestigious technology awards is being named an IEEE Fellow in 1999. He was honored for pioneering the commercial logic synthesis market with the IEEE Circuits and Systems Society Industrial Pioneer Award in 2001. He was also honored for his "contributions to, and leadership in, the technology and business development of Electronic Design Automation" with the 2007 IEEE Robert N. Noyce Medal. Dr. de Geus has been recognized as an innovative business leader as well. In 2002, he was named CEO of the Year by Electronic Business magazine and in 2005 Electronic Business selected him as one of "The 10 Most Influential Executives." In 2009, he was awarded the GSA "Morris Chang Exemplary Leadership Award."

Rick Cassidy
President
TSMC North America

Mr. Cassidy was appointed President TSMC North America in January 2005. Prior to that, he served as executive vice president, office of the President and senior vice president of North American business operations for TSMC North America. He joined TSMC on November 1997 as vice president, Account Management. Prior to joining TSMC, Mr. Cassidy was vice president and general manager of National Semiconductor's Military and Aerospace Division. He joined National in 1979 and held a number of positions including Product Line Director, Marketing Director, Reliability and Quality Assurance Manager, Engineering Manager, General Foreman, Engineering Supervisor and Product Engineer.

Jason Cho
Vice President Engineer and U.S. General Manager
Signetics Corporation

Dr. Cho has served Signetics Corporation as the Vice President Engineer and U.S. General Manager since January 2009 where he is responsible for Engineering and U.S. Sales. Signetics is part of the YoungPoon Group that has $1 billion in revenue for electronics on MLB, IC substrate, FPBC and IC Assembly and Test.

Pete Rodriguez
Chief Executive Officer
Exar

Mr. Rodriguez serves as Exar's President and Chief Executive Officer as of April 28, 2008. Mr. Rodriguez joined the Company as a Director in October 2005. He has over 25 years of engineering, sales and senior management experience in the semiconductor and electronics industry. Mr. Rodriguez was the Chief Marketing Officer of Virage Logic Corporation, a semiconductor intellectual property supplier, prior to his current position. He previously served as President, CEO and a Director of Xpedion Design Systems, Inc., a private, venture-funded developer of electronic design automation solutions for wireless communication circuits and systems. He held this role for six years until Xpedion was acquired by Agilent Technologies in 2006. Prior to Xpedion, Mr. Rodriguez held senior management positions in sales and marketing at Escalade Corporation, a provider of software for chip design acquired by Mentor Graphics. He also held senior sales management positions at LSI Logic, as well as product management and process engineering positions at Aerojet Electronics, Teledyne Microwave and Siliconix. Mr. Rodriguez holds an MBA from Pepperdine University, an MSEE from California Polytechnic University and a BS in Chemical Engineering from California Institute of Technology.