Design automation in Europe

Electronic system design automation is becoming the enabling technology in several key domains, including the mobile telecommunications, consumer, and automotive Industry segments. European authorities realize that leading-ed ge companies in these industries must develop strong research and developme nt in system design to maintain their leading positions. This is why the au thorities are heavily funding cooperation between industries and universiti es through a 2,000-million-euro (US$2,200 million) project called MEDEA (Mi croElectronics Development For European Applications). The goal is to maste r new electronic system design automation technologies, including hardware- software codesign and mixed analog/digital systems. In this roundtable, rep resentatives of academia, industry) and European organizations evaluate the existing technologies and predict their future. The roundtable was held la st March at the international conference on Design and Test in Europe (DATE 99) in Munich.