When Things Go Wrong Even When You’re Doing the Right Thing


By Kurt Takara and Joe Hupcey III “Isolation. Retention. Level shifters. Dynamic voltage scaling. I’m doing all the right things to reduce the power consumption of my design by adding all of this power control logic. But because of this new low power circuitry, I’m seeing fresh clock domain crossing (CDC) problems that are making my design do all the wrong things; and my trusty old low... » read more

Version Control


By Ed Sperling & Ann Steffora Mutschler One of the biggest impediments to progress in semiconductor design is progress itself—version after version of specifications, formats and increasingly IP. In fact, there are so many different versions, some of which conflict directly with each other, that it may take months or even years before some customers adopt new products. Much has ... » read more