Jon McDonald

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Jon McDonald is a technical marketing engineer for the design and creation business at Mentor Graphics.

Author's Latest Posts

Power Matters
By Jon McDonald - 26 Jan, 2012 - Comments: 0

By Jon McDonald Power has been an active area of discussion for me recently. It's come up in a more concrete way than in past conversations: customers are more interested in discussing details and not as interested in the abstract concepts. An interesting outcome of this is that now we need more context, we need to understand what we mean when we talk about power analysis at the abstract, syst... » read more

AT vs. LT
By Jon McDonald - 15 Dec, 2011 - Comments: 0

By Jon McDonald A subject came up today that has come up on numerous occasions: “How often will the transaction-level model with timing, AT, be used versus the functional model, LT?” This is a common question; the answer is often very specific to the user. The kinds of questions and the analysis required will drive the level of accuracy required in the models. It’s probably easiest... » read more

Dinner Talk
By Jon McDonald - 17 Nov, 2011 - Comments: 0

By Jon McDonald Recently at dinner we were discussing a new video game my son wanted. My wife and I were less than thrilled with the game due to some of the adult themes I had seen in the reviews. As my son was trying to convince us that it was an acceptable game he fell back on the old standard justification: “All my friends are playing it!” This is one of the poorest reasons for anyt... » read more

Revelations From Italy
By Jon McDonald - 20 Oct, 2011 - Comments: 0

By Jon McDonald I am just back from vacation. My wife and I spent two weeks in Italy. While there we toured the Tuscan countryside, Florence and Rome. We had a rental car for the time in Tuscany. In Rome we didn’t keep the car. Watching the different types of cars and the way they were driven gave me a good analogy for an issue I’ve had a number of discussions on. As people think about ... » read more

More Intelligent Verification
By Jon McDonald - 22 Sep, 2011 - Comments: 0

By Jon McDonald If I have flipped a coin 1,000 times and it's come up heads every time what are the odds that I will get another head on the next flip? The odds on the next flip are still 50/50. The fact that I observe a uniquely unlikely situation has no impact on my current probability, and frankly any sequence of prior results would be equally unlikely. I find some of the same thinking appl... » read more

Which Came First?
By Jon McDonald - 25 Aug, 2011 - Comments: 0

By Jon McDonald Which came first the chicken or the egg? Based on some of my recent discussions I could ask the question in a slightly different way: “Which came first, the hardware or the software?” Depending on your point of view and personal bias the answer may appear obvious, but from what I've seen it can be very dependent on your current engineering situation. Adopting one perspectiv... » read more

Start The Revolution
By Jon McDonald - 28 Jul, 2011 - Comments: 0

By Jon McDonald “Know thyself.” That advice is promoted in so many different forms it's hard to know where it started. I have been involved in a number of projects recently in which these words would have greatly simplified the project flow. “Simplified” is probably not quite the right word. The issue in this case is not to simplify the project, but to properly understand, characterize... » read more

Management Buys Into ESL
By Jon McDonald - 30 Jun, 2011 - Comments: 0

By Jon McDonald Over the past few weeks I've spent a significant amount of time at industry shows, the largest of which is DAC. It was interesting to hear the tone of the conversations this year around ESL. ESL has reached a level of acceptance such that it is now being co-opted and interpreted to cover an amazing array of activities. I have felt for a while that the electronic design indus... » read more

ESL And FPGAs
By Jon McDonald - 26 May, 2011 - Comments: 0

By Jon McDonald I've been struggling to come up with a good way of answering a recent question: "Do ESL approaches provide benefits for FPGA design?" I have an initial gut answer that's somewhat unsatisfactory. Thinking through the subject I can see ways of looking at the question and getting both a “yes” and a “no,” but that's probably an indication my thinking is not yet clear enough... » read more

$23 For A Deli Sandwich?
By Jon McDonald - 28 Apr, 2011 - Comments: 0

By Jon McDonald I have talked to a number of people recently about the justification for investing in an ESL methodology. “What’s the ROI?” is a question I hear fairly often. I’m currently on vacation in New York City with my family, and during the trip I’ve realized just how subjective ROI can be. What’s the ROI on a $23 deli sandwich? At home I’d never think about paying tha... » read more

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