FPGA-forum 2021 Master thesis award

Onsdag 17. februar kl. 16:00 til 17:00 på Zoom:

https://uio.zoom.us/j/65983101854?pwd=NGtZTTVxSnR6RTlKbzNlV3ducC92dz09

NOTE: This event will be in English to allow both candidates to understand everything.
The event is free and we do of course hope to gather people from both the industry and academia.

There will be no FPGA-forum in 2021, but we decided to run the Master thesis award, as we see this as an important encouragement to write FPGA-related master’s thesises, and thus we can of course not skip 2021,,,

We have the following approximate agenda for this event:
16:00 Welcome – with a brief status from the industry
16:15 Introduction of nominated master’s thesis and the assessment committee
16:20 Announcement and presentation of the award
16:25 Interview with award winner and supervisor
16:30 Video presentation w/ Q&A
16:45 Exchange of experience on FPGA teaching and master’s thesis completion during the pandemic
17:00 End

There are two candidates (completed in 2020):
Kristina Thue: “Accelerating compact CNN models for image segmentation using Vivado HLS”
Mohamed Ismail: “HW/SW Co-design Implementation of Hyperspectral Image Classification Algorithm”

Both at the Institute for electronic systems at NTNU, and both supervised by associate professor Milica Orlandic.

Hope to “see” you there.

FPGA-forum 2021 is cancelled due to Covid 19

The FPGA-forum committee has decided that there will unfortunately not be any FPGA-forum 2021.

The crucial assessment was that, as late as the end of 2020, we will not know anything about the pandemic situation in February 2021 or what advice and rules will apply then. Many decisions would have to be made and a lot of work done before that in order to hold the forum.

The speakers are the most important contributors to FPGA forum, and they invest a lot of time in making good presentations. We don’t want this work to be wasted. The exhibitors are also an important part of the FPGA forum, and they also put in a lot of preparation, so here of course, the same applies. In the middle of August we asked the exhibitors about their opinions and intentions, and received a clear feedback that the probability of not participating was quite high due to Covid 19.

We hope that the situation will improve and be under control in February next year, but even with such a wishful scenario, we believe that we would still end up with a significantly reduced FPGA forum both with respect to presenters, exhibitors and participants, – and we don’t want to waste the goodwill of all those contributing to a great FPGA-forum. The committee therefore unanimously agreed that a cancellation unfortunately was the right decision.

An on-line event has been considered, but since much of the value for the participants is network building, the social setting and the exhibition, and since from experience there will be significantly fewer listeners per presentation, we do not think an on-line event would be a good solution for FPGA-forum.

In conclusion, we are very happy that FPGA-forum 2020 was arranged as planned – just prior to the Covid 19 close-down, and we are now twice as much looking forward to FPGA-forum 2022 (9-10 February) 😊

FPGA-forum 2021 er avlyst pga Covid 19

FPGA-forum-komiteen har bestemt at det dessverre ikke blir noe FPGA-forum i 2021. Den avgjørende vurderingen var at vi uansett så sent som utgangen av 2020 ikke vil vite noe om smitte-situasjonen i februar 2021 eller hvilke råd og regler som vil gjelde da. Mange avgjørelser må tas før det, samtidig som mye arbeid vil bli utført før det.

Foredragsholderne er de viktigste bidragsyterne til FPGA-forum, og disse investerer mye tid i å lage gode presentasjoner. Vi ønsker derfor at dette arbeidet ikke skal være bortkastet. Utstillerne er også en viktig del av FPGA-forum, og de legger også inn mye forberedelser, så her gjelder selvfølgelig det samme. Vi sendte for øvrig ut en forespørsel til utstillerne i midten av august for å lodde stemningen, og fikk da en klar tilbakemelding om at de fleste var relativt skeptiske mhp Covid 19 og deltagelse.

Vi håper jo at smittesituasjonen vil være godt på bedringens vei i februar neste år, men om så skulle være, så tror vi at vi allikevel ville endt opp med et sterkt redusert FPGA-forum både mhp forelesere, utstillere og deltagere, og vi ønsker ikke å misbruke godviljen til alle rundt FPGA-forum. Alle i komiteen var derfor helt enige i at en avlysning derfor dessverre var riktig.

En on-line event har blitt vurdert, men ettersom mye av verdien for deltagerne er nettverksbygging, det sosiale og utstillingen, samt at det erfaringsmessig blir vesentlig færre tilhørere pr. presentasjon, så synes vi ikke dette ville være en god løsning.

Avslutningsvis er vi veldig glade for at vi rakk FPGA-forum 2020 før nedstenging, og vi gleder oss nå dobbelt så mye til FPGA-forum 2022 (9-10 februar) 😊

Closing Keynote day 1 by Geir Førre

Geir Førre, a well known and very successful entrepreneur within the Norwegian electronics industry will present:

Bygge globalt ledende teknologiselskaper fra Norge

on Wednesday afternoon, February 12, 2020

Abstract:
Norge er et lite land med høyt kostnadsnivå og er ikke opplagt det beste stedet å bygge teknologiselskaper. Vi har samtidig erfart at det er fullt mulig gjennom kunnskap, kapital, fokus og aktivt lederskap. Det har ledet til vellykkede etableringer som Chipcon, Energy Micro og Prox Dynamics som alle har oppnådd å bli markedsledende innen sine ulike felt. Dette foredraget vil både komme inn på disse bedriftene og noen nye som vi for tiden jobber med gjennom se på hvordan har vi jobbet med bedriftsetableringene og hva vi anser som har vært viktig for å lykkes.

Bio:
Serial entrepreneur and technology investor. Founder and CEO of Chipcon and Energy Micro, two game changing worldwide semiconductor companies. Since 2008 also operating as investor in and mentor for Norway based technology companies with global leadership ambitions. Portfolio companies includes Prox Dynamics, Disruptive Technologies, Airthings, Ardoq and Zivid labs.

Keynote 2020: FPGA Verification Maturity: A Quantitative Analysis

Harry Foster, Chief Scientist Verification for the IC Verification Solutions division of Mentor, A Siemens Business, will present:

FPGA Verification Maturity: A Quantitative Analysis

on Wednesday morning, February 12, 2020.

Abstract:
While multiple studies on IC/ASIC functional verification trends have been published, there have been no studies specifically focused on FPGA verification trends. To address this dearth of information, Harry presents the results from a recent large industry study on functional verification. The findings from this study provide invaluable insight into the state of today’s FPGA market in terms of both design and verification trends. What is unique about this study is that for the first time the impact of this growing complexity has been quantified in terms verification effectiveness and effort.

Bio:
Harry Foster is Chief Scientist Verification for the IC Verification Solutions division of Mentor, A Siemens Business; and is the Co-Founder and Executive Editor for the Verification Academy. He holds multiple patents in verification and has co-authored six books on verification. He was the 2006 recipient of the Accellera Technical Excellence Award for his contributions to developing industry standards, and was the original creator of the Accellera Open Verification Library (OVL) standard. Harry serves on the Design Automation Conference (DAC) executive committee, and is the 2020 DAC Vice Chair.