Extreme Competition [From the Guest Editor´s Desk]

The pace of progress is continuing incessantly in various technological and product areas. Complex system requirements, evolving process technologies, and integrating innovating ideas into designs to meet prescribed performance specifications are real challenges we all face at various stages of product development. Everyone is working with extreme agility to keep pace with technological changes and stay ahead of competition and is striving to achieve time-to-market goals. In this kind of environment, the onerous responsibility of enabling a first-pass design success is naturally entrusted to many researchers involved in developing simulation procedures; methodologies and techniques in process technologies; modes of active devices and passive components; as well as computer-aided, design, analysis, and verification tools.