Following the last-minute transformation of DATE 2020 to a virtual conference, DATE planned to gather its community again in Grenoble, France for DATE 2021 from 1 to 5 February 2021. Again, considering the continued erratic development of the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic and thus related restrictions of world-wide travelling as well as the safety and health of the DATE community, the Organising Committees decided to also host DATE 2021 as a virtual conference.

DATE combines the world’s favourite electronic systems design and test conference with an international exhibition for electronic design, automation and test, from system-level hardware and software implementation right down to integrated circuit design. This year, the conference was held as a virtual live conference from 1 to 5 February 2021 which offered an exciting, wide-ranging technical programme.

The 2021 DATE week was opened by six in-depth technical tutorials on the main topics and given by leading experts in their respective fields. The topics covered Industrial Control Systems Security, Software-Defined Hardware: Digital Design in the 21st Century with Chisel, How Emerging Memory Technology Will Reshape Future Computing, Security in the Post-Quantum Era: Threats and Countermeasures, Automation goes both ways: ML for security and security for ML as well as CAD for SoC Security.

With the Opening Ceremony, live online on Tuesday morning, virtual DATE 2021 officially opened its doors and started off with one of the plenary keynote lectures given by John Martinis, professor of Physics at UC Santa Barbara, who gave an insight on “Quantum Supremacy Using A Programmable Superconducting Processor”.

Anna Grassellino, recently named “Woman of the Year” by the Italian magazine “D La Repubblica”, opened the afternoon live slot of the online conference with her plenary keynote lecture on “Superconducting Quantum Materials and Systems (SQMS) – a new DOE National Quantum Information Science Research Center”.

61 technical sessions were organized in line with the main conference programme, which participants could follow live during two time slots each from Tuesday to Thursday. Topics from the four areas

D – Design Methods & Tools

A – Application Design

T – Test and Dependability

E – Embedded Systems Design

and from several special sessions on Hot Topics, such as Emerging Technologies and Architectures from Devices to System-Level Management, Machine learning meets Logic Synthesis, Algorithm-Hardware Co-design Approaches for Low-Power, Real-Time, and Robust Artificial Intelligence, Computing for Autonomy, EDA meets Quantum Computing: bringing two communities together as well as 3D integration: today’s practice and road ahead and results and lessons learned from Multi-Partner Innovative Research projects (MPIRPs). Additionally, there were numerous Interactive Presentations which were organized into various IP sessions.

The two Special Days at DATE 2021 focused on areas bringing new challenges to the system design community: Cyber-Physical Systems for I4.0 and Smart Industrial Processes and Sustainable High-Performance Computing, and were each highlighted by a full programme including one keynote speech: William J Dally, Nvidia, shared his insights on “Sustainable High-Performance Computing Via Domain-Specific Accelerators” in line with the Special Day “Sustainable High-Performance Computing” and Philippe Magarshack, ST Microelectronics, presented the industrial perspective on Cyber-Physical Systems for Industry 4.0 in the course of the Special Day “Cyber-Physical Systems for I4.0 and Smart Industrial Processes”.

Additionally, DATE 2021 hosted a two-day Special Initiative on Autonomous Systems Design which was a great success with more than 230 participants. The Initiative kicked off with statements of industrial leaders from Porsche, Bosch, and Airbus unanimously highlighting the tremendous importance of autonomous systems for the future of their industries. However, while current research into autonomous systems is mostly focused on improving systems functionality, there is a growing need for the related design processes, platforms and EDA, as addressed by the ASD Initiative. A poll showed that the industrial and academic participants were greatly satisfied by the way DATE has picked up that topic.

The technical programme of DATE 2021 was completed by the embedded keynote by Mauro Conti, University of Padua, who targeted the topic “Privacy this unknown - The new design dimension of computing architecture”.

To inform attendees on commercial and design-related topics, a full programme in the virtual Exhibition Theatre combined presentations by exhibiting companies, best-practice reports by industry leaders on their latest design projects and selected conference special sessions.

The conference was complemented by a virtual exhibition, including virtual exhibition booths from companies, and collaborative research initiatives including Multi-Partner Innovative Research project (MPIRPs) presentations. The exhibition provided a unique networking opportunity and set the perfect venue for industries to meet University Professors to foster University Programme and especially for PhD Students to meet future employers.

This year’s DATE week finished with 5 full-day live workshops on Friday, that covered several hot topics from areas like (a) Automative Reliability and Test in Europe (ARTe), (b) System-level Design Methods for Deep Learning on Heterogeneous Architectures (SLOHA 2021), (c) BTU - Europractice Workshop - Generation and Implementation of an industry-grade ASSP core, (d) Interdependent Challenges of Reliability, Security and Quality (RESCUE 2021) and (e) Interactive Day of the Special Initiative on Autonomous systems Design (ASD).

Throughout the week, the conference programme included a number of initiatives targeting PhD students with the goal of increasing their visibility, establishing contacts, and encouraging discussions about their future perspectives with experts of the field. This included the PhD Forum, where PhD students were able to present their work, the BarCamp – an interactive open research meeting, a Career Fair as well as panels about Career Perspectives.

The DATE Organising Committees would like to thank all speakers, sponsors and exhibitors as well as participants for their contribution to yet another exciting edition of the DATE conference.

We are already looking forward to welcoming everyone at DATE 2022 in March 2022!

DATE 2021 Press Contacts