Cooley composed a list of things to see and questions to ask at this year's DAC, titled "My Cheesy Must See List for DAC 2005." DAC is being held June 13-17 in Anaheim, Calif.

"I go to DAC to shop, and this is a shopper's guide," Cooley said. "This is literally my stream-of-consciousness shopping list for this year's DAC."

Cooley prominently lists IBM's statistical timing analysis capability, Magma Design Automation Inc.'s Cobra tools and Cadence Design Systems Inc.'s Specman Elite and Test Encounter as things to ask about. The list includes company booth numbers and even the names of executives to talk to about most items.

In addition to pointing out items of interest and asking tough questions about products and technology, Cooley's list contains its share of light-hearted moments. The list pokes fun at Cadence CEO Mike Fister and also includes a humorous bet between Cooley and Forte Design Systems Vice President Brett Cline involving SystemC adoption and a chicken suit.

Sierra unveiled the new version of Pinnacle on June 6.

Other recommended stops on Cooley's list include Blade Technologies Inc., Extreme DA, Synopsys Inc., Blue Pearl Software Inc., FishTail Design Automation, Forte, Mentor Graphics Corp., Prolific Inc., Zenasis Technologies Inc., Giga Scale IC Inc., Aprio Technologies Inc., Pyxis Technology Inc., Blaze DFM, Clear Shape Technologies Inc., Nannor Technologies Inc., Apache Design Solutions Inc., Synplicity Inc., ViASIC Inc., Semantic Designs Inc., Silicon Design Systems Inc., Tera Route LLC, Athena Design Systems, Calypto Design Systems Inc., Jasper Design Automation Inc., Silicon Canvas Inc., Pulsic Ltd., Aldec Inc., Tharas Systems Inc., Carbon Design Systems Inc., Golden Gate Technology Inc., Azuro Inc. and Denali Software Inc.