Content provided in partnership with

Manufacturing Industry

EDAC Honors Physical Design Mentor

Electronic News, Nov 2, 1998

Ernest S. Kuh

san jose, calif. -- A college student studying in Shanghai, China at the dawning of communism in the late 1940s, Ernest S. Kuh journeyed to the U.S., embarking on a career path that would take him to Bell Labs in the 1950s and University of California (UC) at Berkeley before altering the landscape of electronic design automation. His accomplishments in the area of physical design and in electrical engineering education has earned him the Electronic Design Automation (EDA) Consortium's Phil Kaufman award for 1998. The award is being presented at the Consortium's annual Phil Kaufman award dinner tomorrow at the Hyatt Sainte Claire Hotel in San Jose, Calif.

Most Popular Articles in Business: Research and Markets : Tesco Plc - SWOT Framework Analysis; Do Us a Flavor - Ben & Jerry's Issues a Call for Euphoric New Flavors; eBay made easy: ready to start an eBay business? These 5 simple steps will ...; Katrina's lawsuit surge: a legal battle to force insurers to pay for flood ...; Wal-Mart's newest distribution center opened last month near the southwest ...; More »

The EDA Consortium's Phil Kaufman Award is named in honor of EDA industry pioneer Phil Kaufman, who turned innovative technologies like silicon compilation and emulation into businesses that have greatly benefited electronic designers.

With communism beginning to take hold in China and with the university that he attended on strike, Dr. Kuh's father decided it was better for him to come to the United States to pursue his education. Consequently, Dr. Kuh left China in early 1948 not to return until 25 years later when President Richard M. Nixon opened doors to China with his historic visit. Dr. Kuh arrived in the U.S. and began his career in electrical engineering at The University of Michigan.

He received the B.S. degree from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, in 1949; the S.M. degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1950; and the Ph.D. degree from Stanford University in 1952. From 1952 to 1956 he was a member of the Technical Staff at Bell Telephone Laboratories (Murray Hill, New Jersey).

After his four years at Bell Labs, Dr. Kuh's research career can be divided into two distinct periods separated by his tenure within U.C. Berkeley's academic administration. He started with a research career in circuit and systems theory. He joined the EECS department faculty at the UC Berkeley in 1956.

"My early contribution was as an educator," says Mr. Kuh.

As a teacher, Dr. Kuh has trained numerous industry members, EDA founders and Ph.D. students who returned to their home countries to serve as EE academicians. Students of the professor can be found at Motorola, Ultima Interconnect Technology, Avant!, Mentor Graphics to name a few destinations.

He co-authored the classic textbook, Basic Circuit Theory, a text still in worldwide circulation at universities. From 1968 to 1972 he served as chair of the EECS department; from 1973 to 1980 he served as dean of the college of engineering.

After serving as dean of engineering school, Dr. Kuh began a second research career in practical applications. He chose circuit layout for his second career.

One of Dr. Kuh's accomplishments was demonstrating that theoreticians could make important contributions to EDA. With twenty-plus graudate students under his supervision, Dr. Kuh's research team made important contributions in various aspects of phyiscal design, which includes floor planning, placement routing, interconnect modeling simulation.

"Everybody knows about Moore's Law. In the early days engineers who become layout specialists could do layout design using their intuitions and experience; that was in the late 70s. I was among the first to demonstrate that using theory we can develop theoretical methods and programs to do that better," says Dr. Kuh.

Over the years physical design has matured. In the 1980s, many designers were saying that physical design was a dead issue. Dr. Kuh rejected such thinking because he noticed the effects and growing importance of timing and noise in physical design. His Berkeley team began working on timing-driven layout, work that has paid off given the growing imperative of timing analysis and signal integrity in deep submicron designs.

"There remain many difficult problems to solve," says Dr Kuh.

While Moore's law, in Dr. Kuh's opinion, continues to be achievable and on track for the next 10 years, he notes that "the technology has gone ahead of the design methodology, so there is a lot of pressure on the designers to do things in such compact silicon," he says.

Dr. Kuh retired in 1993, but maintains the position William S. Floyd, Jr. Professor Emeritus of the EECS department at UC Berkeley graduate school.

"When I am not traveling I come to my office everyday," says Dr. Kuh.

While Dr. Kuh did not return to his homeland for 25 years, since China began opening its doors, Mr. Kuh has made close ties, and holds honorary professorships at six major universities in China and membership in the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

"China has done very well especially in the last 10-15 years in terms of opening up and economic growth," says Mr. Kuh. "Still have problems, but if you compare China with Russia what a contrast."

Manufacturing Industry

EDAC Honors Physical Design Mentor

Electronic News, Nov 2, 1998

Find Research Guides for:

Find Featured Titles for: Reference

Most Popular Articles in Business

Most Popular Publications in Business