This is a continuation of A Cadence Carol... before reading this post, be sure to have read the first three installments! Stave I: Moore’s Ghost, Part I and Part II Stave II: The First of the Three Spirits, Part I * * * * * * * As the words were spoken and Ben touched the cane, they passed through the glass of the flat screen, and after a blur of images rushed by, too fast for Ben to make out any individual ones, stood in the doorway of a building on the University of San Jose campus. “Good heavens!” said Ben, clasping his hands together, as he looked about him. “I went to school here!” “Yes,” said the Spirit. “And a great many of your compatriots did, as well.” Figures began to appear, wearing styles of the day, many pastels and shoulder pads. Women wore pale lipsticks and every collar, to a person, was turned up. The scent of Drakkar Noir permeated the air. Ben looked down at himself and was shocked to see that he himself was translucent, and the students around him bore no notice of himself or his strange companion. “These are but shadows of the things that have been,” said the Ghost. “They have no consciousness of us.” Ben came across a cluster of students, and as they came, Ben knew and named them every one. “Oh my friends, where have they gone?” “Do you not know where they have gone?” drawled the Ghost. “Haven’t they all gone to Cadence, to improve EDA tools?” Ben paused to listen to what the students were saying, talking to an instructor. “So wait, ECAD Systems, that made Dracula, and SDA are now Cadence?” said one. “Totally,” said another. “I was there at DAC when they announced it. It was last year,” said another. “Oh yeah, I heard they had a neat video announcing it.” “It was nothing compared to their video this year! Did you see it?” “So cool! Amadeus is, like, the coolest thing EVER .” “Totally.” Ben wiped a tear from his eye. “This must have been 1989. I was there, Spirit! This was the beginning of it all! How clever we all were!” “Totally. And yet,” said the ghost, “you do not promote innovation. Even now, you shun your old friend, Fred, of Cadence, when he only tries to make things easier for you.” “I… well… I do wish I had accepted his invitation for coffee,” Ben mumbled, looking at his slippers. “I wonder what my friends have come up with, recently, about design rule checks and physical verification… The Spirit looked at his watch. “My time grows short…” The two were then spirited to an office in the mid-1990s, where engineers were huddled around the computer screen of a younger Fred. “And hey-presto, the Cadence Assura DRC supports both interactive and batch operation modes with a single set of design rules!” he said, triumphantly. The assembled throng ooohed and ahhhhed, and Fred stood up, shaking the hands of those around him. “Hey, Fred,” said one of the assembled, “I saw an old friend of yours this afternoon.” “Who was it?” “Why, it was Mr. Easer! He now is a design architect at Skrooj, Inc!” “Good old Ben!” said Fred. “How did he seem? Was he doing well?” “Well, he was grumbling about having to learn a new tool for signoff. And he said he’s not going to change anything just because the fabs are changing.” “He’s going to have some trouble when his DRCs run out of space, at .35um. 0.25um is around the corner, even. I think we’re going to see 0.13um before too long, can you imagine?” The assembled throng all shook their heads or whistled long, slow whistles. “Fabs are going to be changing… we’re gonna have to keep up…” some of the engineers muttered. “Good thing Cadence seems to be moving with the times…” "What about Moore's Law?" said another. "We keep pushing and pushing the envelope. What do we do when we come to the end of it?" Fred laughed heartily. "And this, my friends, is where innovation comes in!" The group all laughed together. "Now here, let me show you another thing..." “Spirit!” said Ben, in a broken voice, “remove me from this place.” “I told you these were shadows of the things that have been,” said the Ghost. “That they are what they are, do not blame me!” “Remove me!” Scrooge exclaimed, “I cannot bear it!” He grabbed the Ghost’s robes and began to struggle with the Spirit. When he observed that the Ghost’s light was burning high and bright; with that, he seized the top hat and shoved it down on the Ghost’s head. With that, the spirit dropped beneath it, so that the hat covered his entire body. Cautiously, Ben peeked under the brim, and with an angry flutter, he saw that the spirit had turned into a bat. Folding itself up into the hat, he turned into the pattern of Ben’s coverlet on his bed. Ben was conscious of being exhausted and overcome by an irresistible drowsiness. He wrestled his covers one last time, pulled them up underneath his chin, and sank into a heavy sleep. * * * * * * * Stay tuned for Stave III: The Second of the Three Spirits ! —Meera![]()
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