Gary Smith (EDA analyst)

Smith was born in Stockton, California, and grew up in the San Joaquin Valley. He graduated with a bachelor of science degree in engineering from the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland.[4] After six years of active duty in Vietnam, he returned to civilian life as a salesperson for semiconductor companies including National Electronics, International Rectifier, TRW Inc., Signetics, Telmos, and Plessey. At Plessey, he transitioned to engineering management for ASICs.[2]

Joining LSI Logic, he became a CAD methodologist implementing the then novel register-transfer level (RTL) design methodology.[2]

From 1994 to 2006 he worked for the market research firm Dataquest (later known as Gartner Dataquest) as managing vice-president and chief analyst for EDA market analysis.[4][6] From 2006 up to his death, he led his own market research firm, Gary Smith EDA.

He was known for his pre-Design Automation Conference Dataquest briefings with his "What to see at DAC" list.[6][7] He continued this tradition as an independent analyst.[8][9]

Annually Smith also updated his so-called wallcharts where he visually listed out vendors organized by tool category.[10]

In 2007 he received an ACM SIGDA Distinguished Service award "in recognition for his contributions as Chief EDA Analyst at Gartner Dataquest for the past two decades".[11]

He died on July 3, 2015, in Flagstaff, Arizona, after a short bout of pneumonia.[1] Gary was married to Lori Kate Smith and they had son Casey.[12] He had daughters Tamara and Kim from his first wife, Diana Lee Smith.[3]

The Gary Smith Memorial Scholarship was set up at the San Jose State University.[2]