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Blog Review: March 9


The world's largest floating solar farm will soon be complete – an array of 23,000 solar panels on a reservoir outside London. Also in this week's top five picks by Ansys' Justin Nescott, watching sharks from the sky is a drone's latest task, plus making music with a marble machine. Synopsys' Graham Etchells continues his series with a look at electromigration and its impacts on the FinFET... » read more

Power/Performance Bits: March 8


Configurable analog chip Researchers at Georgia Tech built a new configurable computing device, the Field-Programmable Analog Array (FPAA) SoC, that uses analog technology supported by digital components and can be built up to a hundred times smaller while using a thousand times less electrical power than comparable digital floating-gate configurable devices. Professionals familiar with F... » read more

The Week In Review: Design/IoT


Mergers & Acquisitions Synopsys acquired WinterLogic, provider of fault simulation tools used in automotive, safety and security environments for the design and verification of advanced SoCs. In announcing the deal, Synopsys highlighted fault simulation as key for ISO 26262 compliance testing. Terms were not disclosed. IP & IoT Mentor Graphics unveiled the first entirely native... » read more

Blog Review: March 2


Ansys' Bill Vandermark test drives the potential downsides of autonomous cars in his top tech articles of the week. Plus, the world's first fully robotic lettuce farm and big improvements for old technology. Synopsys' Graham Etchells takes a look at what makes FinFET layout methodology different and how 'smart' PCells can help. Mentor's John Day introduces the Open Lab Alliance, a group o... » read more

Power/Performance Bits: March 1


Low power Wi-Fi Computer scientists and electrical engineers from the University of Washington came up with a way to generate Wi-Fi transmissions using 10,000 times less power than conventional methods and which consumes 1,000 times less power than existing energy-efficient wireless communication platforms such as Bluetooth Low Energy and Zigbee. The system, Passive Wi-Fi, uses backscatte... » read more

The Week In Review: Design/IoT


Tools Synopsys incorporated automated analog and mixed-signal debug capabilities into its Verdi SoC debug platform, which now provides comprehensive hierarchical and schematic views of both the analog and digital portions of designs and automated tracing across analog and digital blocks. Mentor announced three applications for the Veloce emulation platform focused on overcoming unpredicta... » read more

Blog Review: Feb. 24


Synopsys' Graham Etchells digs through the toolbox and finds that schematic PCells can be vital in helping layout engineers tackle FinFET complexity. Cadence's Paul McLellan looks at two techniques to test the increasing number of digital gates on an automotive chip with only two pins. In the latest PCB Tech Talk Podcast, Mentor's John McMillan discusses where collaboration with MCAD fits... » read more

Power/Performance Bits: Feb. 23


Apple core batteries Apple waste could help reduce the cost of energy storage, say researchers seeking an improved sodium-ion at the Helmholtz Institute Ulm of Karlsruhe Institute of Technology. Sodium-ion batteries are not only far more powerful than nickel-metal hydride or lead acid accumulators, but also represent an alternative to lithium-ion technology, as the initial materials neede... » read more

The Week In Review: Design/IoT


Know someone who deserves the Phil Kaufman Award for Distinguished Contributions to EDA? Nominations are open until June 30th. Tools, IP & Chips ARM debuted the Cortex-R8 processor, targeting mass storage devices and future 5G modems with a quad-core configuration and extended low-latency memory. Cadence's schematic design tool, OrCAD Capture, added the capability to export hierarc... » read more

Blog Review: Feb. 17


While there have been successes for 3D-IC, the technology has stalled trying to move into the mainstream market, says Mentor's Michael White. So what has kept it from crossing the chasm? Synopsys' Robert Vamosi takes a look at the US government's latest efforts towards improving cybersecurity. Cadence's Paul McLellan discusses the importance of software-driven hardware verification and th... » read more

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