conferences – Observations from Uppsala

First Cadence Blog Post – SDV Europe

I have now posted my first blog post in the Cadence Community. It was just a matter of time after the VLAB team got acquired by Cadence earlier in 2025 I guess. The topic is the SDV Europe conference that happened in the first few days of December 2025.

The 0b111111 DAC –More Systems and Software

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!

DVCon Europe 2025 – Virtual Platforms and a Real Party

DVCon Europe 2025 took place on October 14 and 15, with the SystemC Evolution Day on the 16th. I was there, running around talking to people, taking photos, and listening to presentations. Just like it usually is. Great conference, great fun, great learning! The conference dinner was back by popular demand, and there was a lot of virtual platforms.

DVCon Europe 2025 – Boys in the Hood[ies] and their Song

The DVCon Europe conference dinner was back this year, and I was responsible for a little bit of entertainment. Due to a lack of microphone technique on my part, I have to assume that what I sang was at least partially lost on the audience. So here it is! Along with some notes (but no musical notes).

“Pre-Silicon and Post-Silicon Virtual Platforms” – Computer and System Architecture Unraveled Event Six

After a rather long break, we finally had another Computer and System Architecture Unraveled meetup. This time, we had two speakers talking about virtual platforms. Fredrik Larsson from the Simics team at Intel addressed pre-silicon use cases, and Jakob Engblom from the VLAB Works team at Cadence (i.e., myself) talked about uses in Automotive and embedded (mostly post-silicon).

DAC 2025 – All About AI

The 62nd Design Automation Conference (DAC 62) took place in San Francisco, California, USA, from June 22 to 25, 2025. It was the first time in three years that I attended the DAC (this blog is a little bit late, sorry for that). For those that do not know, the DAC is the biggest show in EDA, combining a major research conference with an industry exhibition and engineering track. This year the theme was AI (Artificial Intelligence), and not much else.

What I Saw at the Embedded World 2025

Last week, I visited the Embedded World (2025). Only the exhibition, not the conference part. It was great to be back again, meeting old friends and making new acquaintances in the embedded business. I already told you the dramatic story of how I got there. This blog is about what I saw at the show – trends and technologies.

A Lucky Trip to the Embedded World (2025)

Last week, I visited the Embedded World (2025). Only the exhibition, not the conference part. It was great to be back again, meeting old friends and making new acquaintances in the embedded business. It turns out I was rather lucky in getting there at all – there was that now infamous strike.

“Unusual Perspectives on AI” – Computer and System Architecture Unraveled Event Five

The fifth CaSA, Computer and System Architecture Unraveled, meetup took place on January 30. We finally gave in and joined the AI hype train, resulting in an event with a somewhat different audience and different discussions. More society and applications, less computer architecture. Our two presenters were Håkan Zeffer from SambaNova Systems and Björn Forsberg from RI.SE (doing his second CaSA presentation!). Håkan talked about the architecture of the Sambanova AI processors, and Björn about AI compilers.

“Processor Performance Insights and Optimization” – Computer and System Architecture Unraveled Event Four

Finally, the fourth CaSA, Computer and System Architecture Unraveled, meetup happened on November 6. It took far too long to get it organized, but we finally did it. The theme was about processor performance analysis and efficient processor implementation, offering two talks from very different perspectives. The location was almost the same as before, on the 19^th floor of the Kista Science Tower building. Once more thanks to the sponsorship from Vasakronan and Kista Science City.

DVCon Europe Report on Semiwiki

I posted my first post on Semiwiki! It is a short summary of what we learned at DVCon Europe 2024. Semiwiki is a blog and wiki for the “semiconductor” industry – i.e., it covers topics like EDA tools, semiconductor manufacturing and fabs, hardware design, software design, testing, validation, etc.

DVCon Europe 2024 – AI and More

The 2024 DVCon (Design and Verification) Europe conference took place on October 15 and 16, in its traditional location at the Holiday Inn Munich City Centre. This year there was even more talk of artificial intelligence than last year, and quite a few sessions related to virtual platforms. And lots of other interesting presentations and discussions.

Schloss Dagstuhl (and a Seminar and Cerebras)

A month ago, I participated in a seminar at Schloss Dagstuhl in Germany, about “Discrete Algorithms on Modern and Emerging Compute Infrastructure”. Not my usual cup of tea, but it was very interesting and insightful nevertheless. I have attended a Dagstuhl seminar once before, back in 2003.

Embedded Conference Scandinavia 2024

The Embedded Conference Scandinavia took place at Kistamässan in Kista, Sweden, on April 10 and 11 2024. This was a reboot of a show that used to run as a small tradeshow/exhibition plus technical talks until the pandemic hit. There was no Embedded Show anymore, just the Embedded Conference and its speaker program. The ECS was instead co-located with Elektronikmässan, the long-running and apparently thriving gathering for “electronics” companies in Sweden.

“RISC-V in Practice” – Computer and System Architecture Unraveled Event Three

On Wednesday, March 13, we had our third CaSA, Computer and System Architecture Unraveled, meetup. Same place as the previous, the 25^th floor of the Kista Science Tower building, thanks to the kind sponsorship of Vasakronan and our collaboration with Kista Science City. The theme this time was “The RISC-V ISA in Practice”, with two speakers named Björn. Another great event!