May 18, 2026 -
By Simon Davidmann
EDN
The Design, Automation & Test in Europe (DATE) Conference in Verona in April showed an EDA research community moving with real momentum into the AI era. The strongest signal from the conference was that AI is no longer a separate topic sitting beside chip design. It’s now shaping the workloads, architectures, design tools, verification flows, and security questions that will define the next phase of semiconductor development.
The conference was upbeat because the direction is clear and the opportunity is substantial. Heterogeneous compute, RISC-V, chiplets, AI accelerators, agentic EDA, structured specifications, and AI-assisted verification are all advancing at the same time. The challenge is significant: these systems must be designed, verified, secured, and trusted.