This is what Gary Smith EDA wrote in its press report about DATE 2008 describes a trend that has shaped DATE over the past 5 years - from an EDA and test to a true system design conference that consequently includes an embedded software main track, organized by embedded software academics and practitioners for the rapidly growing embedded software community. In 2007, more than a third of the 4,922 DATE visitors were involved in embedded software aspects, making DATE a premier venue for community networking. Not surprisingly, ARTEMIS, the large European project framework in embedded systems design, has decided to join forces with DATE 2009 and hold its annual spring event at DATE in Nice.

Following the success and increasing interest in embedded software (ES) at DATE, the software contents have been further extended to form a continuous sequence of events throughout the DATE week. It starts on Monday morning with a full day tutorial on correct-by-construction embedded software synthesis given by experts from academia and industry (Tutorial C).

The keynotes on Tuesday morning are both strongly related to ES. Mike Muller, CTO ARM, will ask "Has anything changed in electronic design since 1983?" and highlight the role of new services "...dramatically changing the importance that software plays in the design process."  Joseph Sifakis, Turing Award Laureate 2008, will survey the scientific challenges in embedded system design highlighting the encounter of modelling and design paradigms from classical engineering and computer science, safety critical and best effort engineering, and, more formal, the chasm of analytical and computational models that embedded software developers are currently facing.

The main conference offers a dedicated 3 day track presenting original ES solutions and applications selected in a highly competitive review process with an acceptance rate of ~25%. There are sessions on ES with non-functional constraints, such as real-time, energy, or fault tolerance (2.6, 5.6, 6.6), on specific multi-core ES issues (3.6, 7.6), on the use of volatile and non-volatile memories (4.6, 10.6), on modelling techniques (9.6, 11.6), and on advances in applications (8.6). The presenters are from all over the world with a large US and Asian share.

In addition to the main track, ES sessions and presentations are found through out DATE 2009. The Special Day on Multi-core Applications includes a panel session on MpSoC programming (12.1), the Design Technology Track offers an embedded tutorial on high-level modelling and verification (3.4) covering model based design challenges, there is a session on embedded systems security (5.3), and the Exhibition Theatre has a session on Timing Specification and Analysis of Automotive Systems (7.8), featuring the newest trends in standardization, methods, and tools. In other sessions, such as a panel on Architectures and Integration on Programmable SoCs (8.1), ES design plays a key role in several presentations.

After 3 days full of ES topics covered in the technical program, the Friday Workshop Day will require a difficult decision for the ES interested attendee as three parallel workshops cover ES from different perspectives, from compilers to formal methods. And, not to forget, Friday will also be the day of the ARTEMIS Spring Event where the latest developments of the ARTEMIS projects will be presented and discussed.

In the exhibition, there are many recent tools for ES development and system level design in general. At the University Booth, novel university projects are presented, some of them giving an early impression on upcoming trends in ES. Last not least, at the EDAA PhD Forum on Monday evening, the most talented PhD students present their ongoing work, selected in a very competitive review process.

DATE 2009 is a must for anyone involved in ES science or advanced ES development. Whether someone plans for a shorter stay of one or two days or a longer presence, DATE will always provide high quality events with focused most recent and original information full of new insights.

See you at DATE 2009 in Nice!

Visit these links and view the detailed DATE 09 technical programme:
Conference - www.date-conference.com/date09/group/date/session-list
Monday Tutorials - www.date-conference.com/date09/conference/date09-monday-tutorials
Friday Workshops - www.date-conference.com/date09/conference/date09-friday-workshops

Please click here to register to attend DATE.