Author's Latest Posts


The Design Automation Conference Turns 60! What’s Hot? What’s Next?


This coming week from July 9th to July 13th, experts from all over the world will descend on the Moscone Center in San Francisco to discuss aspects of what we call "Electronic Design Automation" (EDA) and typically associate with hardware development. There will be many celebratory elements this year, given the milestone of 60 years. Industry luminary Alberto Sangiovanni Vincentelli will give o... » read more

How Many Senses Do You Need To Drive A Car?


The recent AutoSens conference in Detroit left me questioning whether I should turn in my driver's license. The answer the attending OEMs gave to all the discussions about the advantages of RGB cameras, ultrasound, radar, lidar, and thermal sensors was a unanimous "We probably need all of them in some form of combination" to make autonomy a reality in automotive. Together, these sensors are muc... » read more

How Safe Is Safe Enough?


That was the overarching question a group of 180 experts discussed last week at the ISO 26262 & SOTIF conference for four days during #FuSaWeek2023 in Berlin. "How Safe is Safe Enough" is also the title of Prof. Koopman's book from September 2022. I mentioned him in my blog "Are We Too Hard On Artificial Intelligence For Autonomous Driving?" Prof. Koopman was referenced often in Berlin, and... » read more

The Architect’s Dilemma And Closing The Loop With Implementation


Gordon Moore has left a mark on our industry. Moore's Law has shaped decades of development. The EDA industry has been moving up the layers of abstraction to increase the productivity and predictability of design flows in our efforts to address the ever-increasing complexity of semiconductors and electronics developments. I had written about it in "Chasing The Next Level Of Productivity" not lo... » read more

The Game Of Ecosystems Intensifies


You may know about my fascination with ecosystems if you have followed my writing. It is only fitting that I am writing this Blog in Munich (shiver, it's cold), where I attended the GSA McKinsey workshop on "Distributed E/E Architectures and Zonal Computing." This workshop had attendees from semiconductor foundries, EDA vendors, IP vendors, Tier 1 Semis, Tier 2 Integrators, software vendors, an... » read more

Considering Semiconductor Implementation Aspects Early During Network-on-Chip Development


As they say, while history may not repeat itself, it sure rhymes. In 2015, I wrote the blog "Why Implementation Matters To System Design And Software." At the time, I mused that while abstraction is essential in system design, it has limitations that users must consider. Critical decisions, such as those regarding power and performance, require more accuracy than can be feasibly abstracted. ... » read more

Shortening Network-on-Chip Development Schedules Using Physical Awareness


Taking physical design into account as early as possible has been a consideration of chip development teams for quite some time. Still, in interactions with customers and partners, 2022 marked a sharp uptick in concerns about whether a design that may be functionally correct can also be implemented using physical implementation flows. Given the intricacies and complexity of network-on-chip (NoC... » read more

Are We Too Hard On Artificial Intelligence For Autonomous Driving?


I recently attended and presented at Detroit's "Implementation of ISO 26262 & SOTIF" conference. Its subtitle was "Taking an Integrated Approach to Automotive Safety." After three days, my head was spinning with numbers of ISO/SAE and other standards. And at the end of day two, after yet another example that tricked autonomous driving prototypes into behaving wrongly, I sighed and asked whe... » read more

The Automotive Paradigm Shift


We are currently experiencing a pivotal moment concerning the automotive industry. Three major technology areas are converging. First, there is an enormous demand for advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS) coupled with the increasing trend toward autonomy. Second is the digitization and electrification of everything, which is driving the need for efficient compute. Third is the trend to high... » read more

Chasing The Next Level Of Productivity


The keynotes at the recent Design Automation Conference (DAC) gave some great insights into the direction of semiconductor technology and chip and system design. For the first time in a long time, my family members and friends have gained awareness of the importance of semiconductors and electronic design automation. I think this means it is also time to look back on where productivity improvem... » read more

← Older posts Newer posts →