ECSI Mission

• To identify, develop and promote efficient methods for electronic systems design, with particular regards to the needs of the system-on-chip
• To provide ECSI members with a competitive advantage in this domain for the benefit of the European industry

To accomplish such an ambitious goal takes a good strategy. The EC identified the key elements of such a strategy to be found in new design paradigms - reuse being one outstanding practice – in the joining of forces and in the involvement and education of member companies. This was put in the following way:

ECSI Strategy

• Identification and optimization of appropriate design paradigms applicable to System-Design and with special emphasis on efficient reuse
• Benefiting from the synergy among members while combining systems, EDA and IP business know-how with academic knowledge
• Professional involvement and education of the member companies to increase their awareness and knowledge
• Exchange of knowledge and best practices with academia and practicing communities
• Having an ambition to be representative of European industry and to assure this industry being offered maximum opportunities to share the results

Now that the goal and the strategy were clear the means followed naturally: the most important means for ECSI will be to initiate and work in projects with strong industry involvement, to establish an efficient channel for communication between ECSI projects and other actions on one hand and the ECSI members and the surrounding world on the other, as before cooperating with standardization bodies, all the time drawing on industry experience and academic knowledge, gathering and disseminating all relevant information. More precisely, these were the main means identified:

Means and Measures

• Industry lead, needs driven, consortia
• Initiating and conducting projects as a way to accomplish the goals, e.g. demonstration of concepts
• Seeking visibility and acknowledged competence, to achieve broad membership among electronic systems users and designers
• Establishing a recognized professional body called ECSI-SYDIC, to disseminate results from and to acquire feedback on domain specific System-Design methodology projects
• Co-operating with standardization bodies
• Drawing on academic excellence through ECSI Associated Centers, feeding back industry needs of research and education
• Promoting results in all efficient media
• Gathering and disseminating relevant information
• Organizing of meetings, workshops, seminars and courses
• Training engineers to new design methods

It is easy enough to think of projects as a way to organize work, but more precisely what do we mean by an ECSI project ? The EC realized, that with a strategy in full swing, with several projects and various sets of partners, some elaboration of the concept is necessary, for the project to be a powerful means for ECSI and at the same time ECSI preserving balance between expectations and results and between rights and contribution. There is a need to distinguish between 'ECSI projects' and projects in general, to set down criteria for partnership and to formalize rules and procedures. So, this is the recipe of an ECSI project:

ECSI Projects

General

• Some ECSI actions will be in the form of a project
  • As a way to accomplish the goals, e.g. demonstration of concepts
• A project is an action of organized cooperation taking considerable time and effort and requiring formal agreements for participation
  • Industry lead, needs driven, consortia
• An ECSI project is a project set by, coordinated by ECSI with partners being industrial or technical associate members
• Sharing of work, duties and rights is the model

Criteria for partnership

• Every industrial or technical associate member entitled to join in forming a project
  • The process of preparation for a new project shall be kept well visible for all members
• Project partnership requires such ECSI membership
• The ECSI EC can recommend an ECSI member for partnership in an already running project
• In that case partnership is decided by the PMC of the project
  • The PMC has to consider the recommended new partner based on a general, predefined set of criteria

Rules and procedures

• There shall be formal agreements regarding
  • Objectives and strategy
  • Commitments to contribute
  • Confidentiality
  • IP Rights
  • Criteria for partnership
  • Rules for handling of applications for partnership (e g concerning commitment, contribution, timing, ability of catching up, practical sharing of work)
  • Rules for interaction with ECSI and ECSI-SYDIC
• The information about the results of the project must be precisely divided into 3 categories: "Consortium confidential", "SYDIC in confidence", "For public release"
• The first category must be minimal and the second category is submitted to an NDA signature among ECSI-SYDIC members
• The project must contain a specific work package devoted to the involvement of ECSI-SYDIC members
• All above conditions must appear in a preliminary document signed by all partners before project submission. This document must become part of the project consortium agreement

ECSI has always been working with a lean and compact structure. With the aiming at more ambitious goals and increasing activity, there is need for reinforcement. The main structure to take on and carry out the task decided by the members has always been the Executive Committee. The EC has been the deciding, the driving and the controlling body in all matters – be they legal, economic or technical. Time has come to separate matters and prepare for development of the organization. A Technical Board is a means to focus on technical issues, the EC continuing to carry its duties according to the statutes. This is how the TB was conceived:

ECSI Technical Board

How it will be composed?

• Membership
  • Members to have an impact on all new ECSI activities
  • ECSI to benefit from a larger circle of industrial influence
• TB members are ECSI members appointed by the ECSI-EC
• ECSI-EC members are ex-officio members of the TB

How it will work?

• It will meet in plenary or in working sub-groups as often as required
• It will meet in conjunction with all ECSI-EC meetings

Rules and conditions

• The TB is working on behalf of the Executive Committee
• The chair of the TB is the elected chair of ECSI-SYDIC

Already in March a body called ECSI-SYDIC was formed, with the purpose of disseminating results - most notedly those of the newly started SYDIC-Telecom project – and of feeding back complementary knowledge and judgement from ECSI members and invited expertise from the industry. Now, with the revised mission and strategy, this concept was once again subject to consideration and adaptation to make it fit in with the rest. This, now, is the ECSI-SYDIC:

ECSI-SYDIC

How it will be composed?

• Membership
  • Members will be only company representatives
  • All industrial members of the ECSI-TB will be ex-officio members of ECSI-SYDIC
  • Members to have an impact on all new ECSI activities
  • ECSI to benefit from a larger circle of industrial influence
• Invited membership for up to one year
• Companies, whose advice is important to ECSI
  • Will have to consider membership in ECSI
  • Will be partners in some new ECSI activities
• Permanent membership requires ECSI industrial or associate industrial membership

How it will work?

• It will assess, from the point of view of the European industry, ECSI activities and in particu-lar
  • Projects will be guided and reviewed
  • Project results will be published
• The SYDIC-Telecom project is the first example of an ECSI project subject to ECSI-SYDIC attention
  • Allied projects will penetrate key technical issues
• Similar projects with other industries to follow
  • ECSI projects which are set among ECSI industrial members
  • Projects with ECSI partnership whenever deemed beneficial to ECSI members
• It will meet in plenary or in working sub-groups as often as required

Rules and conditions

• The ECSI-SYDIC is working on behalf of the Executive Committee
• EC members elect the Chairman of the ECSI-SYDIC. He/she must be the representative of an ECSI member
• Members of ECSI-SYDIC do not have the IP rights, as do project partners
• ECSI-SYDIC members who are not already members of project WG's could be invited to certain project WG meetings
• ECSI-SYDIC members can create project specific, ECSI-SYDIC WG's

Such a machinery must always be checked and continuously improved, but hopefully there is now a strong basis to build on for the years to come. Not only was this work by the EC necessary and productive – it was a pleasant exercise, showing that there is a set of common values among the EC members and a strong wish to cooperate. This is good for ECSI and a security for the president.