“Electronic design automation has made it possible to place more than 1 billion transistors on a single chip”

Awarded the 15th BBVA Frontiers of Knowledge Award in Information and Communication Technologies, Professor Alberto Sangiovanni Vincentelli reflects in this interview on how his contributions to electronic design and automation tools transformed the way complex circuits are conceived and manufactured. From the first design languages and platforms to today’s model-based systems, he explains how these innovations made the digital revolution possible. His testimony highlights the importance of integrating engineering, creativity, and collaboration to meet the technological challenges of the future.

The BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Awards in Information and Communication Technologies has gone in this fifteenth edition to Professor Alberto Sangiovanni Vincentelli (University of California, Berkeley) for “radically transforming” the design of the chips that power today’s electronic devices, giving rise to “the modern semiconductor industry,” said the committee in its citation.