3/28/00

CONTACT: Dawn Levy, News Service (650) 725-1944; e-mail: dawnlevy@stanford.edu

Cadence donates $2.1 million to Stanford computer lab

Cadence Design Systems Inc., the world's leading supplier of electronic design products and services, has donated $1.5 million to support a directorship for the Stanford Computer System Laboratory (CSL) and $600,000 to fund two Stanford Graduate Fellowships. The directorship will be known as the Cadence Design Systems Director of the Computer Systems Laboratory and the fellowships will be known as the Cadence Design Systems Fellowships.

"We are delighted by Cadence Design Systems' investment in CSL and support of graduate students studying computer systems," said Jim Plummer, the Frederick Emmons Terman Dean of the Stanford School of Engineering and John M. Fluke Professor of Electrical Engineering. "This gift will help the laboratory continue to break new technological ground and recruit and train our nation's leaders in science and engineering. It is a mutually beneficial relationship for higher education and industry."

Mark Horowitz, the Yahoo! Founders Professor in the School of Engineering and a professor of electrical engineering and computer science, will be the Cadence Design Systems Director of the CSL. Established in 1968, the CSL occupies more than half of the Gates Computer Science Building and is jointly operated by the Departments of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. Its 25 faculty members are drawn from both departments.

"The Computer Systems Laboratory at Stanford was formed to foster interdisciplinary research in the broad area of computer systems design," Horowitz said. "This collaboration has been extraordinarily successful, leading to key research innovations in areas ranging from integrated circuit design techniques to computer and network system design and large-scale information management." More than 300 faculty, staff and students contribute to the CSL's teaching and research efforts.

The Stanford Graduate Fellowships will support students for three years. Free to choose their own research projects, the students will not be dependent on federal funding of a project or on faculty research assistance. The Cadence endowment also will give students access to Cadence products and personnel.

"This is an important investment for Cadence and the future of electronic design," said Ray Bingham, president and chief executive officer of Cadence, which is based in San Jose, Calif., and had 1999 sales of $1.1 billion. Cadence products are used in the design of semiconductors, computer systems, networking and telecommunications equipment, consumer electronics and a variety of other electronics-based products.

"Cadence has a history of generously supporting Stanford University through its donations of CAD tools to support our education and research programs," Horowitz said. "This endowment will allow CSL to provide seed funding for new cross-disciplinary research programs, such as examining how to leverage the increasing sophistication of graphics hardware to improve design and visualization tools."

The faculty and graduates of the Computer Systems Laboratory have a long history of technical innovations and productive relationships with industry, Plummer said. The roster includes Jim Clark (founder of Silicon Graphics, Netscape and Healtheon), John Hennessy (founder of MIPS and Stanford's provost) and Andy Bechtolsheim (founder of Sun Microsystems), and continues today with Professors Mark Horowitz (founder of Rambus), Monica Lam (founder at Tensilica) and many others.

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By Dawn Levy