FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

U.S. Contacts: Katie Post
Phone: +1-312-559-3658
E-Mail: kpost@iec.org

Lisa Reyes
Phone: +1-312-559-3325
E-Mail: lreyes@iec.org

CHICAGO – February 2, 2009 – The International Engineering Consortium (IEC) begins DesignCon 2009 today at the Santa Clara Convention Center with key industry associations such as the Ethernet Alliance, the Global Semiconductor Alliance (GSA), the IBIS Open Forum, Microelectronics Packaging and Test Engineering Council (MEPTEC), Power.org, SEMI and the Silicon Integration Initiative, Inc. (Si2).

“We are honored to collaborate with these influential industry associations to present high quality insight throughout our educational programming at DesignCon,” commented IEC President John Janowiak.

Ethernet Alliance will co-sponsor the panel, “Design Challenges for Next-Generation, High-Speed Ethernet: 40 and 100 GbE” February 4, from 1:00-2:00 pm. An Ethernet Alliance Members Meeting will be held on February 5, 2009 in conjunction with the event.

GSA’s IP Interest Group Chair, Bill Martin, will chair “Embracing a New Paradigm: EDA Tools and IP as Solutions Enablers” focused on the positive shifts in an emerging economic model tomorrow from 10:15-11:45 am in room 203/204. GSA will also host its member meeting at DesignCon 2009 today.

Si2 will lead the "Low Power Flows and Formats, From ESL to Implementation" tutorial, discussing the progress and challenges in the areas of low power design formats and full interoperability between those formats today from 1:30-4:30 pm in room 203 and host its member meeting open to all immediately following.

Power.org will host a full-day session featuring Cadence, CodeSourcery, Freescale Semiconductor, Green Hills, IBM, IPextreme, Synopsys, Virtutech and Wind River to Promote Power Architecture Solutions held on February 5, DesignCon’s final day. Power.org will also host the tutorial, "Multicore and Virtualization Key Enablers for Next Generation Network Architecture," taking place on today from 1:30–4:30 pm in room 209/210.

More than 350 experts, 125 premier educational sessions and the Business Forum make up the educational conference, which will complement the cutting-edge exhibition opening tomorrow. In addition, the DesignVision Awards and the DesignCon Paper Awards will also take place recognizing exemplary contributions to the industry.

To view the entire conference schedule, visit www.designcon.com/2009/attendees/schedule.asp.

For more information, please visit www.designcon.com/2009/ for full information or contact Katie Post at kpost@iec.org or +1-312-559-3658.

About the IEC
A nonprofit organization, the IEC is dedicated to catalyzing technology and business progress worldwide in a range of high-technology industries and their university communities. Since 1944, the IEC has provided high-quality educational opportunities for industry professionals, academics, and students.

In conjunction with industry-leading companies, the IEC has developed an extensive, free, on-line educational program. The IEC conducts industry-university programs that have substantial impact on curricula. It also conducts research and develops publications, conferences, and technological exhibits that address major opportunities and challenges of the information age.

More than 70 leading high-technology universities are IEC affiliates, and the IEC handles the affairs of the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department Heads Association and Eta Kappa Nu, the honor society for electrical and computer engineers. Please visit www.iec.org.