I can hardly believe it. I’ve been in the EDA business since 1980 when I joined TI’s Design Automation Department after graduating from Cal Poly with my BSEE. Since 1995, much of my attention has been focused on EDA standards. I reached a moment of truth this year when I admitted, albeit reluctantly, that I could be called a standards-lifer. So, I decided it’s time to share my perspectives on what’s going on in the standards arena. Welcome to my blog - I can’t wait to hear from you! A Gold Medal: The Tenzing Norgay Interoperability Award
Posted by Karen B on August 28th, 2008
With the Beijing Olympics behind us, I’m reminded that interoperability is a team sport, and there are many winners in a standards game. Eight years ago, Synopsys (my boss, actually) conceived of an award for companies who put forth extra effort towards making interoperability a reality. This “gold medal” would recognize those whose endeavors might otherwise be taken for granted. We named it the Tenzing Norgay Interoperability Achievement Award after the Sherpa who was one of the first people known to have reached the summit of Mount Everest, along with the famous Sir Edmund Hillary. The name is appropriate not only because interoperability brings IC design productivity to new heights, but also because interoperability is necessary yet sometimes forgotten.
I found that other organizations have also created Tenzing Norgay awards.  For instance, the government of India has a Tenzing Norgay National Adventure Award which recognizes people in fields of adventure (i.e., outdoor activities). This award encourages people to develop “endurance, risk-taking, cooperative teamwork and quick, ready and effective reflexes in challenging situations”.   Sounds like standards, doesn’t it?
You might have seen press releases over the years announcing the Tenzing Norgay Interoperability Achievement Award winners or attended events that feature their accomplishments.  And you may be wondering why Synopsys gives an award for interoperability which is clearly an industry-wide topic. There’s an interesting story behind this. We originally envisioned that the award would come from the EDA Consortium, sponsored by its Interoperability Committee. We proposed the award to the Consortium’s board of directors, and we were surprised when they declined to be its owner. Apparently, the award was too controversial!Â
Undaunted, we decided to own the Tenzing Norgay award ourselves because we saw value in recognizing the work of other companies. At first, giving an award to a competitor felt a bit strange, but we knew that it demonstrated the essence of the award. Working with other companies, competitors or not, is a prerequisite to interoperability.
Here are the recipients of the Tenzing Norgay Interoperability Achievement Award:
2008: IPL Alliance – Ciranova, SpringSoft, TSMC
2007: UPF Founding Team – Nokia, Texas Instruments, Magma Design Automation, Mentor Graphics
2006: Electronic Tools Company
2005: ARM
2004: Novas Software
2003: Silicon Metrics
2002: Mentor Graphics
2001: CoWareÂ
If you’d like to nominate a company for a future Tenzing Norgay Interoperability Achievement Award, please visit our site for more information.
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awesome! I read about this award before but I did not know its background. Thank you for sharing it.
In the time where different ‘standards’ have emerged, it is nice to know that some influenced people do care about improving interoperability.
Thanks, Ronald. Let me know if there are topics you’d like me to write about. I appreciate your readership and comments.