Guest Editors' Introduction: Highlights of the 50th DAC

h DAC CONTINUES TO play a unique role as an information sharing forum, where the wide range of its offerings allows DAC participants to learn, network and conduct business. In the past 50 years, DAC has been evolved from being an EDA conference to becoming more of a design ecosystem conference and extending into design methods, IP, foundries, design services, and Embedded Systems & Software (ESS). More than ever, the 50th DAC succeeded in pulling together all the above elements of our ecosystem. The 50th DAC has been truly a ‘‘grand celebration.’’ Hundreds of technical paper presentations were included from one of the largest pools of submissions (over 740 manuscripts), of which the top 21% have been selected. The vibrant exhibition showcased over 175 companies, including the largest EDA vendors, IP providers, ESS suppliers and significant foundries in today’s industry serving as a convenient one-stop-shop for all the elements of the design ecosystem. The Management Day program allowed managers and their designers to hear experienced executives share their challenges and expertise in management, economics and design optimization. The Designer Track presentations were held on the exhibition floor. This track had been created specifically for chip, IP and ESS designers and covered case studies, best practices, methodology, and practical aspects of implementation, including over 20 presentations dedicated to chips Designed-in-Texas. In addition, the 50th DAC held information-packed tutorials, interactive panels, six focused workshops, an impressive constellation of six collocated conferences, and many other offerings. New for this DAC was the SKY Talks, an abbreviation for Short KeYnotes. The collection of SKY talks covered a wide variety of topics with broad appeal. DAC also had the new Insight Talks presented by its corporate sponsors. In the past 50 years, DAC has helped globalize our industry and wants to continue doing so in the future. To help mark its golden jubilee, the conference included, beyond this enriched program, a variety of celebratory initiatives. On the first afternoon, attendees were invited to enjoy the opening ceremony of an intriguingGlobal Forum pavilion at the exhibition floor, which featured three dozens of interactive country presentations from all over the