Now that the EDA exhibition season is in full swing, it is worthwhile to note that DAC 2009 is bringing back the once-popular EDA CEO panel.  Although it is billed as "a first-ever keynote panel with the top three electronic design automation (EDA) CEOs," DAC held EDA CEO panels in the past with the last one being held at the DAC 2004 event.

"Futures for EDA: The CEO View," will feature panelists Aart de Geus of Synopsys, Walden Rhines of Mentor Graphics and Lip-Bu Tan of Cadence Design Systems discussing industry futures with respect to markets, business and technology. This keynote panel, to be held on Monday July 27 from 4:30 to 5:45 p.m., will be moderated by Juan-Antonio Carballo, a partner with IBM Venture Capital Group and worldwide manager, IBM Microelectronics Services.

Historically, the DAC CEO panel was composed of the 5 EDA CEOs but this year only three will participate.  Missing from the panel are Rajeev Madhavan, CEO of Magma, and his number four EDA firm on the roster -- albeit with much lower revenues than the top three which represent about 75% of the industry's revenues.  This year's panel discussion should be interesting given that the CEOs of these company's have been the main providers of liquidity to VCs who have funded many EDA startups. 

The panel should be of unusual interest if the right questions are asked in light of the shakeup among the industry players. Cadence's botched attempt to acquire Mentor Graphics added to its financial (big losses) and management woes (key executive resignations).   The accounting and management debacle has cost Cadence its number one industry market share ranking (now sliding behind Synopsys and possibly Mentor).   The company faces a tough uphill climb under new management and recently-installed Lip-Bu Tan as it navigates through a flat year in 2009 (the EDA mart declined by about 17% in 2008).

	Company	2008	2007	CEO
	Candence  Design Systems	$1.04	$1.62	Lip-Bu Tan
	Synopsys	$1.34	$1.21	Aar de Geus
	Mentor Graphics	$0.79	$0.88	Walden Rhines
	Magma	$0.15	$0.21	Rajeev Madhavan
	Revenues ($ in billions)

This year's DAC, the 46th,  will be held July 26-31 at the Moscone Center in San Francisco.