Minutes of the IFIP Working Group Meeting

Nice, Acropolis Convention Center, April 16th, 2007

Present: J.Becker, D.Borrione, N.Dutt, M.Imai, E.Macii, F.Rammig, R.Reis, M.Robert, D.Soudris, E.Villar, F.Wagner

Apologies: F.Anceau, F.Brglez, K.Choi, J.Damore, H.Eveking, M.Glesner, W.Grass, S.Johnson, O.Karatsu, C.D.Kloos, V.Mooney, K.Müller-Glaser, W.Rosenstiel, L.M.Silveira, P.Schwarz, A.Stempkovsky, P.Subra, W.Wolf

Invited: R.Machado

1. VLSI-SoC'2007

Representing the Steering Committe of VLSI-SoC, R.Reis gave a report on the organization of VLSI-SoC'2007. Until the previously established deadline, 61 papers had been submitted. Organizers decided to postpone the deadline to April 23. As in the last edition, local proceedings with IFIP ISBN will be published, and papers will be available through IEEE Xplore. A book with selected papers will be published afterwards by Springer. Regarding the book arising from the 2006 edition, R.Reis reported that the book contained 21 papers, 13 coming from regular papers submitted to the conference and the remaining ones resulting from invited papers for special sessions and from keynote speeches.

2. VLSI-SoC'2008

D.Soudris gave an overview of the organization of VLSI-SoC'2008, which will be held in Rhodes Island, from October 13 to 15. The web site is already available since May 2006. Program chairs will be Christian Piguet, from CSEM in Neuchâtel, Switzerland, and Thanos Stouratis, from the University of Patras, Greece.

3. Membership

F.Wagner reported on the current membership. There are 10 members who decided to become "honorary members". Four members resigned since last year. The WG agreed to propose the status of "emeritus" to other 6 members. There are 13 members that are not active since many years and do not apologize for their absences to the meetings. They will be removed from the membership if they do not answer a new message to be sent by the WG chair. There are other 35 members that can be considered as active and remain as "ordinary members".

4. Election of new officers

Michel Robert has been appointed as new Working Group chair and unanimously elected for the next term. He appointed Ricardo Reis and Luis Miguel Silveira as vice-chairs, considering their active participation in the Steering Committee of VLSI-SoC. Together with Flavio Wagner, as past chair, they will build a small steering committee for the WG.

5. Future of the Working Group

M.Robert emphasized that the cleaning up of the membership is important for the future of the WG and that ordinary members must be effectively active. F.Wagner remembered that ordinary members should participate as PC members of VLSI-SoC. It has been suggested that EduTech should be relaunched. F.Rammig suggested that people from WG 10 3.6 should be contacted. R.Reis suggested that a future edition of EduTech could take place together with the World Conference on Computers in Education (WCCE), to be organized by IFIP in Brazil in 2009. J.Becker suggested that news from the WG should be posted in vehicles that increase awareness on the WG activities. More information should also circulate among WG members. D.Borrione suggested that the WG could have a newsletter on the web, and all members should have a link to this newsletter in their personal sites.

6. Event co-sponsorship

The WG approved the co-sponsorship of the Workshop on Dependable Circuit Design, to be held together with SERESSA - 2nd International School on the Effects of Radiation on Embedded Systems for Space Applications, to be held in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in December 2007. The second edition of the workshop shall be held in Grenoble, France, in November 2008. The event organizers shall also ask for co-sponsorship of WG 10.4

7. SIG-CHARME

D.Borrione reported that the CHARME conference has been merged with FMCAD. FMCAD has been incorporated, and CHARME will disappear. As a consequence of this situation, SIG-CHARME should be closed. S.Johnson, its current chair, will be contacted regarding the future of the SIG.

8. Next meeting

The next WG meeting will be held in Atlanta, in October 2007, together with the VLSI-SoC conference.