Thanks to the author Lewis Carroll, the phrase “wonderland” has been defined as a place that elicits admiration and wonder, to create a place of magical charm. But as we’ve seen and experienced in 2023, in the context of AI, it takes on a more relevant meaning as a place of great opportunity and potentially serious concerns - that generative AI might pose a “civilizational risk”, as recently reported to have been stated in US Congressional hearings by a well known high-tech executive.

This year’s Silicon Catalyst Semiconductor Industry Forum will discuss how the AI era we’ve now entered will impact our industry, our society and most importantly, the world we live in. The panelists will share their thoughts on how best to address some key questions that arise as we look to navigate the years ahead in our new AI wonderland:

The panelists will share their thoughts on how best to address some key questions that arise as we look to navigate the years ahead in our new AI wonderland:

  • What are the AI technologies that will create new business models and industries?

  • What are the implications to semiconductor industry success for incumbents & startups?

  • How do we address the power-hungry AI hyper-scalers’ impact on our energy resources?

  • What impact will potential government and industry regulations have on innovation?

The live broadcast of this webinar will be moderated by Nitin Dahad, EE Times Correspondent, with his esteemed panelists:

Join illustrious speakers:

Moderator: David French - CEO, SigmaSense and Silicon Catalyst Board Member; ex-NXP, TI, Cirrus Logic

Panel Members:

  • Deirdre Hanford - Chief Security Officer, Corp Staff, Synopsys; CHIPS Act Semi Working Group

  • Moshe Gavrielov – Former CEO of Xilinx; Board member of TSMC & NXP

  • Ivo Bolsens - Senior Vice President, Head Corp Research and Advanced Development, AMD

About the Forum

The Silicon Catalyst Semiconductor Industry Forum was launched in 2018. The Forum’s charter is to enable a town-hall like event to discuss the broad impact of semiconductors on our world, beyond the traditional focus on technology, financial reviews and industry business forecasts.

David French - CEO of SigmaSense, Board of Directors of Silicon Catalyst

Mr. French's career has been built around a very broad set of experiences in virtually all aspects of research, design, manufacturing, marketing and business management within the semiconductor industry. He is perhaps best known for his nearly twenty year focus on the proliferation of Digital Signal Processing (DSP) technology and solutions in leading successful initiatives at Texas Instruments and later Analog Devices. In addition, he spearheaded the transition of Cirrus Logic's business as its CEO, from a supplier of logic chips into personal computers to become a profitable industry leader in mixed signal audio components and solutions. More recently Mr. French contributed to the financial success of NXP Semiconductors as Executive Vice President of its Mobile and Computing Business Unit and later working on numerous fruitful business divestitures in China. He has demonstrated a constant emphasis on coaching and development of some of the industry's leading technologists as they have brought their ideas from early formulation to dramatic growth and financial success.

A recurring theme in his success has grown out of the identification and implementation of fabrication process optimization ideas to drive the achievement of higher levels of product performance at lower cost in communication, audio, media and automotive applications. With a longstanding presence since 2001 in the China semiconductor marketplace as an investor, advisor, hands on manager and board director, he has recently launched Gaozhan Microelectronics Management Consulting Company there. One of his most recent projects has been to introduce a technology development and incubation.

Deirdre Hanford - Chief Security Officer, Corporate Staff, Synopsys

Ms. Hanford serves as Chief Security Officer for Synopsys. In this role, she works collaboratively to safeguard Synopsys. She leads efforts to drive industry awareness and enablement for secure design from software to silicon to support our business in EDA, IP, and Software Integrity. Ms. Hanford previously served as co-general manager of Synopsys’ Design Group, responsible for leading the development and deployment of our physical design, implementation, and analog/mixed signal product lines. She has held a number of positions at Synopsys since joining the company in 1987, including leadership roles in general management, customer engagement, applications engineering, sales, and marketing. Ms. Hanford earned a B.S. Eng (electrical engineering) from Brown University and an M.S.E.E. from UC Berkeley. In September 2022, Ms. Hanford was appointed to the US Department of Commerce’s CHIPS Industrial Advisory Committee.

Ms. Hanford serves on the Board of Directors of Cirrus Logic, Inc. Ms. Hanford currently chairs Synopsys Foundation. She serves on the Engineering Advisory Board for UC Berkeley's College of Engineering. She is co-Chair of Purdue University’s Semiconductor Degrees Leadership Board (SDLB). Ms. Hanford is a board member of NDIA.

Ms. Hanford was named to WomenTech’s 2022 list of Women in Tech Leaders to Watch, VLSI research’s 2017 list of All Stars of the Semiconductor Industry, and National Diversity Council’s 2014 list of Top 50 Most Powerful Women in Technology. In 2001, she was a recipient of the YWCA Tribute to Women and Industry (TWIN) Award and the Marie R. Pistilli Women in EDA Achievement Award.

Moshe Gavrielov - Former CEO of Xilinx; Board Member of TSMC & NXP

Mr. Gavrielov served as president and CEO of Xilinx, Inc. from January 2008 to January 2018 and as director of Xilinx, Inc. from February 2008 to January 2018. Prior to that, he served at Cadence Design Systems, Inc. as executive vice president and general manager of the verification division from April 2005 to November 2007, and CEO of Versity, Ltd. from March 1998 to April 2005. He also served at a variety of executive management positions in LSI Logic Corp. for nearly 10 years, and engineering and engineering management positions in National Semiconductor Corporation and Digital Equipment Corporation. Since 2019, Mr. Gavrielov has served on the board of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Limited (TSMC), and as of May 2023 he joined the NXP board of directors. In addition, Mr. Gavrielov is the chairman of SiMa Technologies, Inc. and Foretellix, Ltd. Mr. Gavrielov holds a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering and a master's degree in computer science from Technion-Israel Institute of Technology.

Dr. Ivo Bolsens - Senior VP, Head Corp Research & Advanced Development, AMD

Ivo Bolsens is the Senior Vice President of AMD, which acquired Xilinx in 2022. Prior to the acquisition, he held the title of Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer (CTO), with responsibility for advanced technology development, Xilinx research laboratories (XRL) and Xilinx university program (XUP). The research of his team lead to the industry-leading adoption of 2.5D advanced packaging technology in Xilinx products. Bolsens’ team also spearheaded the introduction of high-level abstraction flows for programming FPGA’s, resulting in the first deployments in data center applications. Additionally, his team was credited for the development of Xilinx’s AI Engine architecture, providing leading edge performance for machine learning applications in the 7nm Versal product family, the first generation of Xilinx’s adaptive compute acceleration platform.

Bolsens came to Xilinx in June 2001 from the Belgium-based research center IMEC, where he was vice president of information and communication systems. His research included the development of knowledge-based verification for VLSI circuits, design of digital signal processing applications, and wireless communication terminals. He also headed the research on design technology for high-level synthesis of DSP hardware, HW/SW co-design and system-on-chip design. Bolsens holds a PhD in applied science and an MSEE from the Catholic University of Leuven in Belgium.