ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I gratefully acknowledge the assistance of the many people who have had a hand at allowing me the chance to write this book.
First, I have had the pleasure of knowing Bernard Goodwin, a technical editor, for more than 10 years. I met him as he was finishing the publication of a book written by a co-worker of mine at the time, and I mentioned that I might have an idea for a book. Bernard took the opportunity to challenge me to flesh out the idea. At the time, I little realized that it would take me all of those 10 years to accomplish that fleshing out. Each year, at the Design Automation Conference (DAC), I would make the trip over to the Prentice-Hall booth and tell Bernard that I was still thinking. He never gave up on me. Finally, in November 2009, I decided that I was going to have to start the writing of the book soon or I would never finish and would always look backward wondering why. I contacted Bernard, told him that I was going to send him the first couple of chapters by the end of the year. Based on this, Bernard rounded up a few reviewers and the effort got underway.
After I delivered these first two chapters, Bernard took them to the reviewers: Thomas Dillinger, Faizul Alum, Don Bouldin, and especially Charles Dancak. Their reviews, although sometimes painful to read, were of incredible value to me. I have taken their advice and made many changes as a result. In my opinion, this book is the better because of their advice. Hence, second to Bernard, I ...
