The Story Behind the Cadence Gift: How Simulation Software Became a Reality

Louis Harrold, chair of Electrical and
Computer Engineering (photo BA)
Louis Harrold, chair of Electrical and Computer Engineering, is smiling now, but three years ago he was so frustrated he thought about alternative careers. The department's simulation software was becoming increasingly outdated. High level languages and certain sophisticated simulations used in industry weren't available to students. For example, while students could simulate digital circuits with one piece of software and analog circuits with another, they couldn't put these together to do mixed-mode circuit simulations. It was time to upgrade, but the department faced the usual campus budgetary constraints.

Harrold pulled a few of his best students into a task force. They worked on a computer interface project. "We wanted to design it using high level language rather than drawing the schematics," said Harrold. While they could do part of this project, they couldn't create the actual chip design. The software "wouldn't do the layout of the chip for us. So we stopped right there." Once they knew the limitations of the current software, they educated themselves on available circuit simulation packages, looking carefully at how these packages would be used to educate electrical and computer engineering students. They developed a report two inches thick that included course materials to demonstrate what students could learn if they had current, more elaborate software.

When the task force began, they didn't have a particular software package in mind, although "Cadence is one of the leaders, if not the leader," said Harrold. They created a report that described the type of of software they needed. Harrold used the document to demonstrate to Cadence Design Systems, Inc. that "we knew what we were doing, that we were a worthy department."

Enter Thaddeus Salter. Salter, a Chico State graduate and Cadence representative, asked Harrold if he'd like Cadence software. "Sure," responded Harrold, " how much is it going to cost?" Over the next two years, there were discussions, demonstrations, mutual evaluations, and negotiations led by Salter, Harrold, and Jerry Hight of Sponsored Projects and Electrical and Computer Engineering. The full package costs $4.8 million for each work station. Typically, educational institutions and Cadence negotiate a lower price for the package. When Salter arranged for Chico State professors and students to visit Cadence last spring, Harrold thought he was involved in such a negotiation. Then he was told Cadence would donate the software. Harrold was delighted.

Harrold emphasized that none of this would have come about without the tremendous efforts of Hight, Salter, and the student task force. Michael Privett, Kien Vi, and Don Crothers were three of the task force members. Privett, Harrold's "main man" on the task force, now works for Intel in Arizona. Vi is working towards a Ph.D. at Stanford, and Crothers recently finished his MSEE graduate work at Chico State.

As for the software, "It's impressive. It has a wide variety of uses," explained Harrold. Among other things, students will be able to create the circuitry and files for computer chips that can then be sent off to be manufactured. They'll be able to create circuits using VHDL and Verilog languages that allow students to write code defining the circuit rather than drawing the schematics.

It doesn't stop there. Now other companies that use Cadence in their design process are calling Chico State wanting to develop partnerships. Harrold's delight shows in his smile as he quotes a friend in industry who told him, "this is your ticket" to increased opportunities for your students.