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Brian Bailey

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Brian Bailey is Technology Editor/EDA for Semiconductor Engineering.

Author's Latest Posts

RISC-V’s Increasing Influence
By Brian Bailey - 12 Jun, 2025 - Comments: 0

The industry is increasingly talking about benefits brought by the RISC-V architecture, but is it even the right starting point? While it may not be perfect, it may provide the flexibility necessary to move forward gradually. Computer architectures and software have followed in the footsteps of processors developed 80 years ago. They aimed to solve sequential, scalar arithmetic problems usin... » read more

The DAC Valuation
By Brian Bailey - 29 May, 2025 - Comments: 1

The Design Automation Conference is approaching fast, and the evidence of a funding gap is in plain sight. An entire day of the technical conference has been dropped. This is disheartening to say the least, and in the long term it may be a very costly mistake. The problems started when the Internet bubble burst in 2000. Until then, DAC was growing to the point whereby few convention halls we... » read more

A Balanced Approach To Verification
By Brian Bailey - 29 May, 2025 - Comments: 0

First-time chip success rates are dropping, primarily due to increased complexity and attempts to cut costs. That means management must take a close look at their verification strategies to determine if they are maximizing the potential of their tools and staff. Using simulation to demonstrate that a design exhibits a required behavior has been the cornerstone of functional verification sinc... » read more

Development Flows For Chiplets
By Brian Bailey - 15 May, 2025 - Comments: 2

Chiplets offer a huge leap in semiconductor functionality and productivity, just like soft IP did 40 years ago, but a lot has to come together before that becomes reality. It takes an ecosystem, which is currently very rudimentary. Today, many companies have hit the reticle limit and are forced to move to multi-die solutions, but that does not create a plug-and-play chiplet market. These ear... » read more

From Tool Agents To Flow Agents
By Brian Bailey - 30 Apr, 2025 - Comments: 0

Experts At The Table: AI is starting to impact several parts of the EDA design and verification flows, but so far these improvements are isolated to single tool or small flows provided by a single company. What is required is a digital twin of the development process itself on which AI can operate. Semiconductor Engineering sat down with a panel of experts to discuss these issues and others, in... » read more

Tape-Out Failures Are The Tip Of The Iceberg
By Brian Bailey - 24 Apr, 2025 - Comments: 5

The headline numbers for the new Wilson Research/Siemens functional verification survey are out, and it shows a dramatic decline in the number of designs that are functionally correct and manufacturable. In the past year, that has dropped from 24% to just 14%. Along with that, there is a dramatic increase in the number of designs that are behind schedule, increasing from 67% to 75%. Over the ne... » read more

Analog Creates Ripples in Digital Verification
By Brian Bailey - 24 Apr, 2025 - Comments: 0

We live in an analog world, but analog has been minimized whenever possible. At some point digital and analog must come together in every electronic device, and that has long been an area where errors creep in. The Wilson Research Group and Siemens EDA functional verification study has long shown that analog and mixed signal are two of the highest causes of flaws that result in chip respins.... » read more

AI Agents Need Goals
By Brian Bailey - 16 Apr, 2025 - Comments: 0

Experts At The Table: Definitions and goals matter when it comes to using AI effectively, and it has to be tightly reined in to be effective. Semiconductor Engineering sat down with a panel of experts to discuss these issues and others, including Johannes Stahl, senior director of product line management for the Systems Design Group at Synopsys; Michael Young, director of product marketing for ... » read more

3D-IC Ecosystem Starts To Take Form
By Brian Bailey - 10 Apr, 2025 - Comments: 0

The adoption of chiplets is inevitable, but exactly when a mass migration toward this design approach will begin is yet to be determined. Nevertheless, some of the biggest technological and business-related barriers are being addressed. And while a chiplet-based design remains beyond the economic reach of many companies today, that is starting to change. Early signs of an emerging ecosystem ... » read more

Times Are Changing For EDA
By Brian Bailey - 27 Mar, 2025 - Comments: 1

The EDA industry is about 50 years old, and I see the people responsible for its first generation setting their LinkedIn employment status to 'retired, at home' almost daily. I, for one, have a foot in that camp, but reporting/writing is different than having a full-time job because I can control the time commitment. We have seen many serial entrepreneurs who have created several successful com... » read more

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