Author: Jabejian Elizabeth

Bad silicon ‘yields’ a DFM solution
by Richard Goering

Electronic Engineering Times
April 25, 2005

Santa Cruz, Calif. – A foundry’s “bizarre” mistake led Alex
Alexanian to start a company to help solve the toughest problem in
design-for-manufacturability (DFM): getting information that foundries
consider proprietary into designers’ hands.

Alexanian was chief executive officer of SRAM startup Mosaic Systems
when it received a 0.13-micron chip that was dead-on-arrival from
its foundry. Turned out the foundry forgot to put two metal layers
on the chip. That got Alexanian to thinking that perhaps there was a
“wrong setup” between design and manufacturing.

In 2001 he founded E-Z-CAD, now known as Ponte Solutions Inc., a
design-for-yield startup that this week will announce plans to bring
statistical yield modeling into the IC design flow. If foundries go
along, Ponte’s encrypted models could end the reliance on long lists
of design rules and provide a much more accurate way of calibrating
designs for acceptable yields.

Ponte is backed by $10 million in private investment and venture
capital, and employs 60, including 49 R&D engineers in Alexanian’s
native Armenia. The company promises a “platform” for statistical
yield modeling, a high-capacity data model and yield analysis tools,
all for release this year.

Alexanian is used to challenges. A graduate of the Faculty of Applied
Mathematics in Armenia, he worked on a programmable logic controller
project co-sponsored by the former Soviet Union and Great Britain.
When the USSR dissolved, so did the project, and Alexanian moved with
his family to California in 1994.

He worked at Cadence Design Systems Inc., where he was a member
of the consulting staff in the Silicon Ensemble group. In 1999 he
left to launch Mosaic Systems, which produced working silicon but is
no longer operating. Alexanian started E-Z-CAD with 27 people from
Mosaic’s R&D center in Armenia.

E-Z-CAD spurned an acquisition offer from HPL Technologies Inc. in
2002, which may have been fortuitous, given that HPL’s CEO was
charged a few months later with fabricating most of the company’s
revenue. Declining the offer meant Alexanian had to ask his team to
go without pay for four months.

They did. “That was the time we realized we really had a company,” he
said. Alexanian later succeeded in raising private funds, as well as
funding from Telos Venture Partners, U.S. Venture Partners and Incubic.

Alexanian is Ponte’s president and CEO. His team includes two former
directors of engineering from Monterey Design Systems-Ara Markosian,
Ponte’s CTO, and Sedrak Sargisian, its vice president of engineering.
Arklin Kee, vice president of business development, co-founded
Cadence. Nitin Deo, senior vice president of marketing, was with
Magma Design Automation.

There are many DFM startups today, but Ponte claims to have a
distinctive angle: its rejection of “binary” design rules in favor of
statistical yield models. “Today the EDA world interfaces with the fab
with design rules,” Alexanian said. “We believe that’s going to change
because of high pain.” A 90-nanometer design rule deck might be more
than 1,000 pages, he noted, and might include conflicting information.

Ponte is developing a platform for statistical yield modeling that
claims much better calibration with actual fab processes. These models
will include random defects such as particle contamination, systemic
defects such as etching and chemical-metal polishing violations,
and parametric effects from process variations.

Most important, they will be encrypted, so that tools can use the
information but people outside the foundry can’t see it. Ponte hopes
this will induce foundries to provide yield data they won’t release
today. While a generic description of failure mechanisms will be
public, foundry-specific parameters will not.

Getting foundry information is the biggest problem for DFM vendors,
said Gary Smith, chief EDA analyst at Gartner Dataquest. “The holy
grail is a secure process model, one that can be used by the DFM
vendors but can’t be reverse-engineered,” he said.

Ponte expects statistical yield information to be integrated into
design tools. For example, placement and routing tools can use the
models to do more yield-friendly wire spacing or install redundant
vias.

Underlying Ponte’s technology is a proprietary data model that can
do “smart processing on billions of polygons, hierarchical or flat,
in hours for large chips,” Alexanian said. It will support standard
interface formats so data can be exchanged with commercial EDA systems.

A handshake in Warsaw; Erdogan laments Kocharian speech

Hurriyetim
17 05 2005

Diplomacy only made it as far as a handshake yesterday in Warsaw,
when Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Armenian President Robert
Kocharian met up at a summit of European Council Ministers. Later,
PM Erdogan reserved his strongest words of the trip for the Armenian
leader and some of the governments of the countries participating in
the summit.

Kocharian speech mentions genocide, thanks European countries
for support In a speech made to the general summit participants,
President Kocharian mentioned the so-called Armenian genocide, and
thanked the countries whose parliaments had officially recognized
the event. This brought forth a sharp retort from PM Erdogan, who
called on Kocharian and Armenia to “first pull out from Azeri lands
that they have invaded.” PM Erdogan reserved scathing criticism for
not just Kocharian, but the Polish Parliament, which recently passed
a decision to recognize the so-called Armenian genocide, as well as
other European governments preparing to do the same.

Regret from Poland

PM Erdogan has already threatened the 15 countries, including Poland
and France, which have recognized the so-called Armenian genocide that
Turkey will “pass bills in our parliament about your genocides.” At a
press conference held during the summit, Erdogan revealed that Polish
President Alexander Kwasniewski had come to him to express his own
personal regret for the Polish Parliament’s recent decision. A brief
overview of Erdogan’s words from the press conference follows:

“(Referring to the letter written to Kocharian from Ankara) We laid
out our sensitivity on this matter in a very clear format. We were
clear and direct about our views. Compared with past responses,
they gave a more positive answer to our letter. But to talk about
the baseless Armenian claims here is, as far as I am concerned,
playing to the masses. We have opened our archives. Let them open
theirs….Let the future not be built on the hatred and grudges of
the past, but on top of peace and love.”

Erdogan warns Turkey may start own genocide research Erdogan warned
further:: “If this goes any further, we will start recognizing the
genocides committed by other countries in our parliament.

But we will not speak without documents. We will start with the 15
countries which have recognized the Armenian claims.”

TRAFFICKING VOLUME IN ARMENIAN UNDERESTIMATED

Armenpress

YEREVAN, MAY 17, ARMENPRESS: An independent study by the International
Organization of Migration (IOM) has revealed that the volume of
trafficking in human beings from Armenia is underestimated. The study
indicates that Armenia is primarily a source and transit country
for women and girls trafficked for sexual exploitation mainly to the
United Arab Emirates (U.A.E.) and Turkey, as well as Russia, Greece,
and other European countries.

Majority of victims of trafficking are of the average age of 15
to 32 years, they originate mainly from poor rural and urban areas
in Armenia.

The IOM Yerevan office and the Armenian foreign ministry will hang
posters in shops, churches and other places visited by Armenians in
those countries which have Armenian consulates with telephone numbers
of consulates for these women to seek help.

IOM Yerevan office also is implementing a joint program with the
foreign ministry to train consular employees to quickly detect and
assist victims of trafficking.

COUNCIL OF EUROPE SUMMIT CLOSED

Azer Tag
[May 17, 2005, 14:53:34]

The work of the third Summit of the Heads of State and Government
of the Council of Europe was continued on May 17 at Royal Castle
in Warsaw.

President of the Azerbaijan Republic Ilham Aliyev attended the meeting.

On the second day of the Summit speakers were heads of states and
governments from Germany, Albania, Turkey, Portugal, Ireland, Slovakia
and other COE member countries.

Also speaking Minister of Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan Elmar
Mammadyarov dwelt on the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict,
the steps Azerbaijan has been taking towards peaceful resolution of
the problem, and called the influential European organizations for
intensification of their efforts for liberation of the Azerbaijani
lands from Armenian armed forces.

After the speeches, Warsaw Political Declaration and the Warsaw Action
Plan have been adopted, and Chairmanship of the Committee of Ministers
has been handed over from Poland to Portugal.

Afterwards President of Poland Alexander Kwasnewski has closed
the Summit.

Later on the same day, an official reception in honor of the
participating heads of states and governments was given on behalf of
the COE Secretary General Terry Davis.

$100: MOST COMMON BRIBE SIZE IN YEREVAN’S UNIVERSITIES

AZG Armenian Daily #088, 17/05/2005

Survey

According to “perception of corruption and hazards in highest
educational establishments” survey the educational system of Armenia
is the most corrupted one. Education minister Sergo Yeritsian is
skeptical about this survey conducted by the student movements. “I do
not exclude that there are cases of bribery in our system but it’s
ridiculous to call the system the most corrupted one”, Yeritsian
said. The sociological survey was conducted by the support of UNDP,
OSCE and the Armenian Government.

14.6% of 490 students in 12 highest educational establishments
named the educational system as the most corrupted one, 13.1% – Tax
Collecting Service, 12.4 – jural institutes, 12.4 – police. The least
corrupted institutions are the church, sport, culture, international
organizations and the sphere of ecology protection. The most corrupted
educational establishments are the Yerevan State University (15.3%),
Agricultural Academy (15.1%) and Yerevan Medical University (14).

73.6% said that the most usual size of bribes is $100. As it could
be expected, students named the periods of entrance and graduation
exams as the times of “flourishing” of bribery.

UNDP employee Vahan Asatrian thinks that it is natural that the
students consider educational system the most corrupted one. “A person
in a certain sphere overestimates the problems in his sphere. Students
consider universities to be most corrupted and those engaged in jural
system see their system as such”, he said.

By Ruzan Poghosian

–Boundary_(ID_wL//i1wRki9whz2dIQAowg)
Content-typ e: message/rfc822

From: Sebouh Z Tashjian <[email protected]>
Subject: ‘There will be shift in Armenian-Turkish relations but Armenia will….
MIME-version: 1.0
Content-type: text/plain; format=flowed
Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT

AZG Armenian Daily #087, 14/05/2005

Interview

‘THERE WILL BE SHIFT IN ARMENIAN-TURKISH RELATIONS BUT ARMENIA WILL EASIER
COME TO TERM WITH USA THAN TURKEY’

Famous American-Armenian publicist Yervand Azatian arrived in Yerevan to
take part in “Ultimate Crime, Ultimate Challenge. Genocide and Human Rights”
international conference late last month. As always during his visits, he
called in daily Azg publishing house, and we availed ourselves the
opportunity to interview Mr. Azatian for an impartial evaluation of the
conference. He presented not only his personal views on Armenia-Turkish
relations but also introduced official Washington’s stance on the matter.

– How do you evaluate the international conference dedicated to the 90th
anniversary of the Armenian Genocide?

– Owing to the high level of the conference, the reports it comprised, it
was one of the most impressive initiatives of last years. Of course, there
were inequalities but most of the reports were significant. Although the
conference was under the state’s patronage, something that as a rule evokes
biased attitude within academic circles just the way we are preconceived in
regard to the commission headed by the president of Turkish Historic
Foundation Yusuf Halacoglu considering it one of the Turkish state’s wings,
there could be no other alternative. The arrangement was linked to the 90th
anniversary of the Armenian Genocide in the end. This fact gave the
anniversary a somewhat scientific appearance. Another positive moment was
that we had international lawyers who rendered independent jural commentary
of the Genocide. Particularly, Irishman William Schabas’ speech was very
impressive. The voice of UN was heard through the speech of Alfred de Zayas.
But it was not that impressive for me as he dwelled on genocides in general
trying to show that everything he says concerns the Armenian Genocide.
Without naming it, Zayas defined the Armenian Genocide. I want to point out
President Robert Kocharian’s speech, especially his accent on the fact that
the remnants of Taleat were transported to Turkey and were buried on the
Hill of Freedom. Obviously, that was a sign of passing the baton to new
generation. Kocharian showed that today’s Turkish state is the heir of the
crime of Armenian Genocide and is the owner of the Western Armenia that was
seized as a result of the massacre. This was very important. I also want to
say words of appreciation in regard to foreign minister Vartan Oskanian’s
speech. I was afraid that his emotional speech might overflow diplomatic
norms. But, fortunately, his emotions did not cause any slip-up.

– Baskin Oran and Murad Belge from Turkey were also participating in the
conference. How do you evaluate their speeches?

– I want to make evaluation of all Turkish participants that is why I will
add the names of Taner Akcam and Halil Berqtay. As you know, all of them
were the victims of Turkish military authorities. As a result, they feel
bitterness. I see those Turkish historians as patriots who want to wipe
Turkey’s bloody past off. That is their initiative and is not necessarily
the result of their sympathy or wish to endow us with rights. Today, Turkey
faces the serious challenge of EU accession and those scientists therefore
want to throw off the burden of history first of all and then free their
people. Why I describe them as Turkish patriots? Because they want to
justify their people in the face of history. The speeches and studies of the
Turkish scientists show though that there is a line that they do not cross.
Though they say that Turkey has to recognize the Armenian Genocide and its
responsibility before the history, they make us understand that we should
not expect anything more than recognition. Though some speak of apology,
they never say anything about reparation, return of the lands or even the
protection of Armenian cultural monuments on the territory.

– Does all these apply to Taner Akcam as well?

– Yes, even Akcam. I told him that I appreciate him as a historian. But we
often think that the Turkish scientists have the same understanding of the
Genocide as we do. If you have noticed, Baskin Oran told during the
conference that he would like to see thinkers like Halil Berqtay and Taner
Akcam among the Armenian scientists. That is they want to see scientists who
would announce, “There was no genocide”. This is how I understand Oran’s
words. By the way, Oran who was sitting beside me while Arkady Ghukasian was
reporting asked me, “Who is this man?” Learning that he is the president of
Nagorno Karabakh, Oran said, “Do you see what a chauvinistic person he is?
He is speaking of lands”. That’s the reason why I say that they do not
consider any land reparation. They simply want to free their state from
bloody past. But still they are somehow our allies because no one was
mentioning of Genocide yesterday but today it turned into a serious issue
thanks to their work. Nonetheless, I stand for Armenian-Turkish dialogue and
even more for the meetings of Armenian and Turkish scientists at
international conferences.

– Mr. Azatian, as we know, Turks were concerned with the “Armenian tsunami”
months before the 90th anniversary. Did the tsunami take place?

– I think it took place more in our minds as well as in Armenia and Diaspora
but for the world press the 90th anniversary remained a secondary issue. It
more earnestly covered the 60th anniversary of victory over fascism and the
liberation of Auswentsin than the Armenian Genocide.

– So, you said it did not happen to the degree we wanted. Do you think that
Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan’s letter to President Kocharian played a role
here?

– I think that Erdogan’s letter pursuit that very aim. Having good
diplomacy, Turks were looking for ways to withstand the tsunami and tried to
eliminate its consequences by Erdogan’s letter. In effect, the letter was a
trick for Armenia to fall for. There were even voice echoing Erdogan,
particularly President Bush highlighted in his April 24 speech the
“wonderful proposal”. Germany’s Chancellor Gerhard Schroder joined him
highly evaluating the proposal. Bush and Schroder undoubtedly knew that it
was Turkey’s trap. They, in fact, hinted to Armenians that they have no
strength and will fall for. It’s evident that if we agree with Erdogan’s
proposal of creating a group to find out whether there was a Genocide or
not, that would mean to go 90 years back. I am glad that all our scientists,
leaders of the state declared, “The fact of Genocide is beyond doubt”.
Despite the fact that the international historiography has confirmed the
Genocide, it was introduced in the UN as a commentary. That is there was no
official confirmation as it was in case of the Holocaust. Apparently, there
is no possibility for that as it is connected with strength. But I don’t
want to be skeptical about our work. We have done great work of creating
huge literature on Genocide in English, French and Turkish languages. Thanks
to all these we got a political tramp card as well. I am glad that the
Genocide issue tops our foreign policy agenda. It played its role in
international circles.

– Though Turks hold firmly to negation, the issue of the Armenian Genocide
is also on Turkey’s agenda. They cannot avoid it. I want to know what do you
think of Kocharian’s reply to Erdogan’s letter.

– I think that the answer should be view as positive. President Kocharian, i
fact, passed by Erdogan’s trap saying, “The responsibility of states differs
from that of historians”. He emphasized meanwhile that the historians’
conclusions are obvious for us, so let’s sit down and take up practical
steps of border opening and establishing diplomatic relations. I think the
President gave an irrefragable answer.

– What is Washington’s approach to Erdogan’s proposal of treating historic
issues and then considering relations on one hand and Kocharian’s offer to
establish intergovernmental relations first and then put forward all issues
on the other? If Washington is concerned to see Armenia-Turkish relations
improved then Kocharian’s reply must be more acceptable.

– I don’t doubt that Erdogan’s political line that looms in the letter was
accorded with Washington. It was not accidental in the end that Bush
reminded about Erdogan’s proposal in his April 24 speech. Thus, Washington
was aware of that, and they made us understand that we have to jump at the
bait to free America from this issue. It must be note that our lobby, though
rather unsatisfying, is doing its job. It’s a certain power and its strength
was visible in Bush’s statement. Each year making his speech on April 24, he
notes that he feels obliged to USA-born Armenian citizens.

to be continued

By Hakob Chakrian

–Boundary_(ID_wL//i1wRki9whz2dIQAowg)–

Observer Online, IN
May 13 2005

ND brings Gregorian to speak
By Maddie Hanna

A leader, an author and a native Iranian, the multi-faceted Vartan
Gregorian will address Notre Dame’s 2005 graduates Sunday at the
University’s 160th commencement exercises.

Gregorian, president of the Carnegie Corporation and former president
of Brown University and the New York Public Library, will be the
principal graduation speaker. This wide variety of high-ranking
positions makes him an ideal selection, University President Father
Edward Malloy said in a press release.

“In all his many roles in public life, Dr. Gregorian has displayed
extraordinary leadership,” Malloy said. “I know that his remarks will
be an ideal capstone for [our graduates’] educational experiences on
our campus.”

Gregorian has served at the helm of New York’s Carnegie Corporation
since 1997. The corporation, which was founded in 1911, seeks to
carry out founder Andrew Carnegie’s vision of philanthropy, which
Carnegie said should aim “to do real and permanent good in the
world.” Awarding grants in four areas (education, international peace
and security, international development and strengthening U.S.
democracy), the corporation expects its fiscal year 2004-2005 grants
to total over $80 million.

>From 1989 to 1997, Gregorian served as the president of Brown
University, where he taught freshman and senior history seminars and
a course on Alexis de Tocqueville. In addition, he led capital
campaigns that helped triple the endowment there.

Prior to that, Gregorian served for eight years as president of the
New York Public Library – a system that has four research libraries
and 83 circulating libraries. He is credited with pulling the library
out of financial crisis. Gregorian was born to Armenian parents in
Tabriz, Iran. After receiving his elementary education there and his
secondary education in Lebanon, he enrolled at Stanford University in
1956. He graduated with honors just two years later.

In 1964, he earned a doctorate in history and the humanities, also
from Stanford.

Gregorian taught European and Middle Eastern history for eight years
at San Francisco State College, the University of California at Los
Angeles and the University of Texas. He then joined the University of
Pennsylvania faculty. In 1972, he became the founding dean of the
Faculty of Arts and Sciences there; in 1972, he became the provost.

Notre Dame has welcomed other academic officials in the past, such as
former Yale University President Kingman Brewster, Jr. in 1972,
former Harvard University President Derek Bok in 1987 and Stanford
Provost (now Secretary of State) Condoleezza Rice, a Notre Dame
alumna.

Father Peter Jarret, counselor to Malloy, said Notre Dame’s emphasis
on intellectualism in choosing commencement speakers reflects the
University’s values.

“Given Notre Dame’s academic reputation,” he said, “that’s the type
of person that would come here.”

Gregorian has received myriad accolades and grants during his career,
including honors from U.S. presidents. In 1998, President Bill
Clinton awarded Gregorian with the National Humanities Medal; last
year, President George W. Bush awarded him the Presidential Medal of
Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian award.

Gregorian is the author of “Emergence of Modern Afghanistan: Politics
of Reform and Modernization, 1880-1946,” “Islam: A Mosaic, Not a
Monolith” and his autobiography, “The Road to Home.”

Premier: Turkey could charge countries adopting Armenian genocide bill

NTV television, Istanbul
12 May 05

Prime Minister Erdogan made a surprise statement regarding the
Armenian genocide allegations. Erdogan said that they too could adopt
decisions at the parliament on genocides committed in the past in the
15 countries that have adopted the Armenian genocide decision.

Continuing his visit to Hungary, Prime Minister said: I too could just
decide to pass decisions from my parliament on genocides committed in
various countries. I have such a majority.

Prime Minister Erdogan reminded that the 15 countries which passed the
[Armenian] genocide decision from their parliaments are countries that
have committed genocides in the past.

Erdogan said that the trap being laid against Turkey is very ugly,
Turkey will not fall into such a trap.

Minister says Armenia, Azerbaijan not ready to sign Karabakh accord

Arminfo
12 May 05

YEREVAN

Armenian Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanyan will meet the co-chairmen of
the OSCE Minsk Group in Krakow on 14 May, Oskanyan told journalists
today.

He stressed that during the meeting with the co-chairmen, he would
discuss a range of issues pertaining to the peaceful settlement of the
Nagornyy Karabakh conflict, from Nagornyy Karabakh’s status to
security issues. Oskanyan also said that he was not scheduled to meet
Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov in Poland.

As for a possible meeting of the Armenian and Azerbaijani presidents,
Robert Kocharyan and Ilham Aliyev, on the sidelines of the Council of
Europe summit in Warsaw [16-17 May], Oskanyan said that no document
was planed to be signed during the meeting.

“The co-chairmen have not submitted to the presidents of the two
countries any document. At present the peace talks on the resolution
of the Karabakh conflict have not reached a stage where a document can
be submitted to the presidents for signing,” Oskanyan said.

Pan Armenian News

ARMROSGAZPROM SUSPENDED ELECTRICITY EXPORT TO GEORGIA

12.05.2005 06:30

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ ArmRosgazprom CJSC has suspended electric power supplies
to Georgia, reported company Press Secretary Shushan Sardarian. In her
words, the previous price of 2.5 cents for 1 kWh does not suit the Armenian
party due to the fall in the dollar exchange. Simultaneously, the Georgian
party does not wish to buy electricity from Armenia at a higher price,
reported Utro.ru.