  The knowledge of the phase diagram of strongly coupled theories as function
of the number of colors, flavors and matter representation plays a fundamental
role when constructing viable extensions of the standard model (SM) featuring
dynamical electroweak symmetry breaking. Here I summarize the state-of-the-art
of the phase diagram for SU(N) gauge theories with fermionic matter
transforming according to arbitrary representations of the underlying gauge
group. I critically report on the latest results from first principle lattice
simulations and then review the principal models of (near) conformal
technicolor such as (Next) Minimal Walking Technicolor (MWT) and Partially
Gauged Technicolor (PGT). I finally show that the incarnation of the conformal
technicolor model is nothing but the simplest PGT model.
