| Gary Smith | |
| Birth Date: | March 9, 1941 |
| Birth Place: | Stockton, California |
| Death Place: | Flagstaff, Arizona |
| Occupation: | Electronic engineer, business analyst |
| Alma Mater: | United States Naval Academy |
Gary Smith (March 9, 1941 – July 3, 2015[1] [2]) was a veteran electronic design automation (EDA) business analyst. He was chief analyst of Gary Smith EDA firm.[3] [4]
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.[3] 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.
Joining LSI Logic, he became a CAD methodologist implementing the then novel register-transfer level (RTL) design methodology.
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.[3] 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.[5] [6] He continued this tradition as an independent analyst.[7] [8]
Annually Smith also updated his so-called wallcharts where he visually listed out vendors organized by tool category.[9]
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".[10]
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.[11] He had daughters Tamara and Kim from his first wife, Diana Lee Smith.[2]
The Gary Smith Memorial Scholarship was set up at the San Jose State University.[12]