Istvan Novak Looks Back on History of DesignCon

Estimated reading time: 4 minutes

Editor's note: DesignCon Conference and Expo runs Jan. 28–30, 2025 at the Santa Clara Convention Center.

Many of us have been attending DesignCon for a long time, but Samtec’s Istvan Novak has been attending DesignCon even before it was called DesignCon. A veteran signal and power integrity engineer, Istvan has been on the Technical Program Committee for over two decades, and he’s authored and co-authored a variety of award-winning conference papers.

In honor of the show’s 30th anniversary, I asked Istvan to share a little about the early years of DesignCon, and how he got involved with the event.

Andy Shaughnessy: Tell us about your first DesignCon. What was the show like back then?

Istvan Novak: I attended the conference that was the predecessor of today’s DesignCon on April 5, 1993, in Budapest, Hungary. It was called the High Speed Digital Design Symposium, organized by Hewlett Packard. For the younger generation, it is worth mentioning that Hewlett Packard in those years was mostly known for their measurement solutions provided by the business unit that later became Agilent. There were two tracks in the symposium, one focusing on high-speed system design and one for digital communications design. Figure 1 shows the front page of the 1993 Budapest show proceedings.

A few years ago, I wrote a short blog about DesignCon¹ and Karl Kachigan of Agilent kindly offered a brief summary from first-hand experience. Karl was on one of the teams that created Design SuperCon, and offered his perspective:

“A group in the Americas created the first High Speed Digital Seminar in 1989. It was given in the HP Santa Clara office by HP marketing folks. For the next few years, 1990-1992, that seminar evolved using some consultants to create and deliver some presentations, and was delivered at several cities in the US. In 1993, we again ran the seminar tour and first did one in Europe. In 1994, seminar tours focused on ATM/broadband and communications. To simplify equipment setup, we created custom carts that could be wheeled into the hotels and back onto a big 18-wheel moving van. The carts stored the equipment beneath, and showcased it on top. There were custom back boards with signage. I remember having to wheel these things around.” 

In 1993 the conference stopped at some of the European cities, like Budapest. There were consultants with invited talks about how Hewlett Packard instruments helped them and their clients to solve their technical problems. The exhibition was held in a ballroom in parallel with the conference. The talk of the day was the recently announced Intel Pentium CPU. The first actual “DesignCon” that I attended with a presentation was the 1995 Design SuperCon, held at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, California, where it is still held today. The conference proceedings from 1993 and 1995 are on display at DesignCon 2025 at the 30-year anniversary display. At the display, you can find the QR code to the PDF files of the proceedings.^{2, 3}

Shaughnessy: How did you get involved in the technical planning of the conference?

Novak: From early on, just like at other major technical conferences, the best papers were honored with an Outstanding Paper Award or Best Paper Award. The papers I was involved in at DesignCon 1999 and 2000 won the award, and as a tradition, some of the new members of the Technical Program Committee were recruited from those authors who delivered papers that were best received by the audience. In the early 2000s, I got invited to be part of the Technical Program Committee, which involves rating and selecting paper proposals, organizing multi-company technical panel discussions and organizing special sessions.

Shaughnessy: Why do you think DesignCon has passed the tests of time?

Novak: DesignCon is unique in providing a one-stop-shop for today’s signal and power integrity engineers. DesignCon started when signal integrity was considered black magic and the topic suddenly impacted a lot of designs. DesignCon offered real technical solutions for practicing engineers by practicing engineers. DesignCon is a medium-size conference and many participants attend it as a large family reunion where we meet our friends and colleagues and we learn from each other and learn new solutions and get ideas what may be the next big thing in technology. In another blog⁴ of mine, you can read more about the most memorable technology I’ve found at DesignCon.

Shaughnessy: What are you looking forward to at DesignCon this year?

Novak: Just like in earlier years, I am looking for learning about new ideas. In recent years I have been a co-chair for Track 10, Power Integrity. When we reviewed the submitted papers, I was very pleased to see several very interesting topics and contributions. Make sure to check them out. In signal integrity, the new buzz is 224 Gbps transmission. Lot of companies have papers and demos on the show floor to introduce the latest in technology. For Samtec’s DesignCon 2025 presentations and demos, see a summary⁵.

Shaughnessy: Thanks for your input, Istvan.

Novak: Thank you, Andy.

References

1. "Memories from early years of DesignCon," by Istvan Novak, Electrical Integrity, March 2013.
2. Proceedings of DesignCon 1993.
3. Proceedings of DesignCon1995.
4. "DesignCon: Personal Reflections on the Past Twenty Years," by Istvan Novak, Electrical Integrity, January 2018.
5. "See Samtec 224 Gbps Demos at DesignCon," by Janine Love, Samtec blog, Jan. 3, 2025.