ABOUT CHIP DESIGN MAGAZINE

High Value Content in Every Issue...

In each issue, Chip Design addresses the information needs of the leading-edge, upper-mainstream, and system-level programmable logic IC designers. Specific topics include:

Specific topics include:

• EDA development and tools
• Intellectural Property (IP) development, integration and delivery issues
• Chip modeling, architecture, design, verification, test and manufacturing
• Analog Mixed Signal (AMS) modeling, simulation, design and testing
• Verification
• Tool interoperability
• Power control and reduction
• The inclusion of design for verification and design for manufacturing issues into the design process
• Changes in languages
• The need at the systems-level to use higher levels of abstraction

Regular columns include:

• Industry Viewpoint
• Standards
• Libraries
• Programmable logic
• Design and verification languages
• Physical implementation
• Test

About the Editor

John Blyler is the former senior editor for Wireless Systems Design (WSD) magazine, as well as the executive editor for the Wireless Watch e-Newsletter. In addition to hardware-software design issues, John's main focus in covering the wireless space was on EDA tools. Prior to his work on WSD, John wrote for the IEEE Instrumentation and Measurement (I&M) magazine.

In addition to print magazine and electronic media, John has written several books. His first work dealt with the technical aspects of systems engineering: "What's Size Got To Do With It: Understanding Computer Systems" (Wiley). He is currently finishing another manuscript call "Risk Reduction in Electronic Design: Techniques for Hardware/Software Analysis" (Elsevier).

John Blyler has more than 16 years of technical experience in systems engineering and technical program management. His hardware/software engineering background encompasses both semiconductor and defense environments. John continues to teach graduate-level systems and software engineering courses on a part-time basis for Portland State University.

Mr. Blyler holds a BS in Engineering Physics from Oregon State University, as well as a MSEE from California State University, Northridge.

Contact John at: jblyler@extensionmedia.com

Editorial Calendar

2008 Editorial Calendar

Design articles are user-based case studies that demonstrate the solution to specific problems through the use of new tools or methodologies. By covering issues from different perspectives-high-end, middle range, and programmable designs-the content will be a vehicle for cross-fertilization of ideas and increased sharing of function-specific knowledge.

Focus reports are an annotated listing of all the EDA tools in one tool category. By providing reference to uniform data categories, the focus reports allow designers to quickly scan all the product offerings and get contact information to the various vendors.

Guidelines for Submitting Articles

Chip Design provides engineers and technical management with an opportunity to contribute a technical article. Contributions are written “by engineers for engineers.” The target audience is EDA users who design ICs; power users pushing the state of the art, upper mainstream users advancing levels of integration, and the developers of systems on a programmable chip, the largest PLDs.

Article submission

Chip Design editors solicit all articles. Please check the Editorial Calendar or contact John Blyler at jblyler@extensionmedia.com for listings of topics. Just because the topic is not listed does not mean that it is not something to be considered for publication.

Content

Contributions are engineer-to-engineer discussions of issues/ problems related to recent technological developments. In general, an article should discuss developments that are related to the focus topic and how they affect the Chip Design reader. The best way to write a problem/solution article is to be as non-product specific as possible: write about the nature of the problem, your proposed solution and its benefits and then describe a proposed physical implementation.

A contributed article is not a place to hype a product's features and capabilities. It is a place to talk about technical challenges and solutions, in the context of (1) a proposed or new standard or one that is evolving; (2) an application story from a company using a solution that you advocate; (3) how to use a particular architectural building block; (4) how to use a particular software tool or methodology.

There are a number of ways to discuss a new architecture, subsystem, software or tool:

1. Work with a customer to provide an application story;
2. Turn your own product, architecture or software tool into an under-the-hood "how we did it" application story: Takethe reader through the design process. Provide an under-the-hood view that is interesting to the engineering and programming audience: What choices did you consider when you were still in the formative stages? What options did you choose (not choose) and why? What modifications did you make? How did you build the product? What tools did you use?
3. Write a balanced article about all of the solutions available. If you have a particular bias, support your conclusion with the technical data, discuss the tradeoffs, timing and appropriate alternatives.

Style

Write modularly and in active voice. Keep the text of the main article tightly focused on the topic and its development, with details on standards, specifications and specific product implementations in separate sections.

Examples

Good: we simulated this portion of the design...

Bad: the design was simulated

Good: you can ignore these details in most cases

Bad: it affects the nominal cases much less and only matters for the corner cases in certain extreme situations.

Timing

Typically, editors plan for contributed articles two to three months prior to the date of publication. While there are exceptions, it is important to contact an appropriate editor early to discuss opportunities, article ideas, and any important requirements or recommendations for upcoming sections.

Space considerations

Depending on space, an article may run in the Chip Design print edition and online or the article may run online only. If anarticle meets the editor's requirements and is cut from a section, due to space constraints, efforts will be made to try to position the article in an appropriate upcoming issue.

Article Requirements

The following requirements must be met for an article to be published in Chip Design.

Abstract

An abstract is required before article submission. The abstract should provide the editor with specific information about the author's goals for the article. It can be an outline that details major points that will be expanded upon in the article, or a list of captions for the graphics.

Article length

Industry Viewpoints should be one page in length. That is about 650 words with a high resolution head shot of the author and a 2-3 line biography.

Technology articles should be about 1400 to 1600 words in length and include at least two high resolution graphics along with a head shot of the author and a 2-3 line bio. Longer articles can be accepted but the conclusion of the article may be run in the online edition.

Bylined information

The article must have a title (suggested headline) and an author or authors, with individual names, titles, full company name, city, state and an e-mail address.

Acronyms

All acronyms need to be spelled out the first time they are used. Any additional company mentioned in the article must include the full company name and location.

Art requirements

Between 2 and 5 pieces of technical art are required per article. The art can be a drawing, schematic, table, code or a high-resolution photo. All acronyms need to be spelled out in the art.

Captions

Each piece of art must be accompanied by a caption, which should explain the details and components shown in the related piece of art and explain how they interact. Caption length is one to four sentences. The art and captions are considered to be self- contained entities. In particular, do not discuss drawings in the text of the article.

Submission procedures

Abstract/Article

The abstract and article should be sent to jblyler@extensionmedia.com in Microsoft Word or in plain text format (ASCII) at an agreed upon deadline. Do not try to emulate the magazine column formats in your submission and restrict formatting to Bold for headlines, Italic for code and language fragments, subcript and superscript.

Art submission

Art must be sent to the editor in a separate file. It must be sent in one of following common formats: TIFF, GIF, JPG, BMP, or PowerPoint. Only high-resolution photos can be used. Art can also be faxed or mailed to the editor.

Editorial procedures

All articles and art are edited by Chip Design staff editors and meet Chip Design editorial procedures before publication. Copyright is under Extension Media, Inc. All rights reserved.