I have been a semi-regular attendee at the Design Automation Conference going back to 2008 or so, and over the years I have slowly drifted towards EDA (Electronics Design Automation). I have presented various talks as part of the “engineering track” at the DAC, always in some kind of “systems” category. This has now come to its logical conclusion, when I step up and join the Engineering Track Technical Program Committee (TPC), taking care of the Systems and Software topic. We need more systems and more software at the DAC!
The importance of software and the system level have been growing steadily over the years. The DAC has updated its tagline too – from being about hardware design, it is now the “Chips to Systems” conference.
The engineering track of the DAC complements the rich research track by giving practitioners in industry a chance to present what they are working on and working with. It is about sharing practical insights from the frontline of building actual working products.
The engineering track is split into four topics or sub-tracks:
- Backend
- Frontend
- IP (i.e., intellectual property blocks)
- Software and Systems
Backend and Frontend get the most submissions, mirroring the traditional focus of the conference. Indeed, the further up the stack and closer to applications you get, the fewer submissions we see. Like in this pyramid:
We would like to even out these differences. The DAC is a great place to present systems work, in particular for cases where hardware meets software. Or hardware meets the world. “EDA” is much broader than it used to be – just look at the product portfolios of the large EDA companies. It is far beyond RTL and circuits.
What topics fit the systems and software track? I would argue anything from the point where chips (or chiplets) end and software and system design starts. Such as:
- Integration! Integration of hardware, firmware, software is always interesting.
- Device drivers, registers, hardware-software interface designs, and operating system usage of hardware features.
- Automotive, embedded, and aerospace applications.
- System architecture and design methodologies and tools.
- System simulation – virtual platforms, digital twins, federated simulations, …
- Software development tools and methodologies (for close-to-the-hardware software). Including using software development post-silicon.
- High-level synthesis and other ways to drive software and hardware together.
- Applications of AI and machine learning (ML).
- Using chiplets to architect systems, tradeoffs from chiplets (the technicalities of building them belong in other tracks), as well as moving from chiplets to chips to boards to systems. Integration!
Submit your proposals at https://dac.com/2026/program/systems-and-software-track-submissions! DAC Engineering submissions are refreshingly simple – just a few slides. It is also sometimes challenging to fit all you want to say into the few slides. Which is part of the art and fun of presentation. Find the true kernel of the work!
The deadline for submissions is January 12, 2026.
And we also need reviewers to join the TPC!