Stark juxtapositions in my recent travels: Last week, I was in Arizona for the second annual MEMS Executive Congress, listening to really interesting panels in which executives probed for new business opportunities. MEMS has always been next year's technology, but this time there was an optimism in the air that was undeniable.

Mirror that against the EDA Consortium's annual Phil Kaufman Award dinner a few days earlier. The event honored Berkeley grad and Stanford professor Bob Dutton and his contributions to design automation over the years, but the evening overall had a feeling of resignation. The EDA industry has done well this year, but it's struggling with its identity, its message and, most jarringly, its value proposition. It didn't help the chatter around the free bar that Gartner Dataquest had just killed its EDA analysis business. People are already talking about folding up the EDAC tent and taking up residence with SEMI, the huge equipment industry organization.

But it was Synopsys CEO Aart de Geus' speech on the state of the industry that hit me between the eyes. In his humorous presentation, he depicted the EDA industry as a doormat for the electronics industry. (EDAC's marketing slogan is "EDA: Where Electronics Begins," and de Geus seemed to be riffing on that, basically saying "EDA: Where electronics wipes its dirty shoes.") Imagine how Stanford's Dutton felt, being honored by a group with such astonishing self-esteem issues.

EDA, despite the phenomenal enabling technology it creates, has always been a small, insular community, given to gnawing on its own extremities in times of uncertainty. At the Kaufman dinner, I was surprised the table flatware wasn't plastic for everyone's safety.

To be sure, EDAC as an organization is working on crafting a new message--I've met with them myself on the topic. And Pam Parrish, who has done strong work promoting the industry for EDAC, is moving on, replaced by 40-year vet Bob Gardner.

But it doesn't help when de Geus, EDAC's incoming chairman, paints his industry in so unflattering a light. The chip industry clearly has issues and gets pressured constantly by its OEM customers on price, performance and quality. But I can't imagine National Semiconductor CEO Brian Halla standing before the SIA Dinner this week and calling chip makers the doormats of systems OEMs. He's more apt to wax poetic about millions of wireless image sensors floating around the Golden Gate Bridge in the hunt for terrorists amid the tourists.

Maybe EDAC should rewrite its slogan with help from John Mellencamp: "Sometimes love don't feel like it should; you make it hurt so good."

By Brian Fuller (bfuller@cmp.com), editor in chief of EE Times