Gummel gets EDAC Kaufman award

Electronic News, Nov 14, 1994

San Jose, Calif. - The Electronic Design Automation Companies (EDAC) last week selected Hermann K. Gummel for its first annual Phil Kaufman award for his contributions to electronic design automation (EDA) over three decades.

The EDAC said that while at Bell Labs, Dr. Gummel headed a group responsible for developing computer aids for ICs. "Over the years, his team created programs for layout, design-rule checking, circuit extraction, logic and circuit simulation and interconnect analysis," the EDAC statement said.

Dr. Gummel has been active as a consultant since retiring from Bell Labs in 1986 after a career spanning nearly. three decades. At Bell Labs, he was also director of the Advanced CAD Studies Laboratory. He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and a recipient of the David Sarnoff award and the Guilleman-Cauer award of the Circuits and Systems Society.

The international association of companies in the development, manufacture and sale of design tools to electronic engineers, said the award is named for industry pioneer Phil Kaufman, who made new technologies such as silicon compilation and emulation, into businesses benefitting electronic designers.

"EDAC's Phil Kaufman award honors those who have driven widespread use of new techniques in design automation. Hermann Gummel is one of those drivers," said Dr. Walden (Wally) C. Rhines, EDAC's vice chair and chairman of the Phil Kaufman award nominating committee. Dr. Rhines is president and CEO of Mentor Graphics.

Mr. Kaufman died while on a business trip in Japan after a career in the computer industry of more than 25 years. His experience included serving as CEO of the company now known as Quickturn Design Systems, as well as chairman and president of Silicon Compiler Systems where he was instrumental in advancing the concept of silicon compilation.