Electro-ramblings

Electronic design automation pioneer Richard Newton, a professor in electrical engineering and computer science at Berkeley, has died aged just 56.

Newton was instrumental in helping to develop many of the basic techniques used in EDA, such as Spice, timing and circuit simulation, and logic synthesis.

He helped set up Cadence and Synopsys, among others, and many of the EDA industry's leading lights passed through his department at Berkeley.

It's fair to say he was one of the cleverest blokes on the planet.

There's a well-written obituary at EETimes EDA icon Richard Newton dies.

Meanwhile, Electronic News has some comments from Cadence executives.