The Lost Art Of Processor Verification


As we celebrate over 50 years of microprocessors, the industry has embraced every generation of silicon process technology with architectural innovation plus new design methods that have supported innovations in almost every market segment. The interest around RISC-V is opening up increased activity around new approaches to optimize designs for the next generation of devices across multiple mar... » read more

Machine Learning Approach for Fast Electromigration Aware Aging Prediction in Incremental Design of Large Scale On-Chip Power Grid Network


Abstract "With the advancement of technology nodes, Electromigration (EM) signoff has become increasingly difficult, which requires a considerable amount of time for an incremental change in the power grid (PG) network design in a chip. The traditional Black’s empirical equation and Blech’s criterion are still used for EM assessment, which is a time-consuming process. In this article, for ... » read more

PowerPlanningDL: Reliability-Aware Framework for On-Chip Power Grid Design using Deep Learning


Academic research paper from Dept. of CSE, IIT Guwahatim, India. Abstract: "With the increase in the complexity of chip designs, VLSI physical design has become a time-consuming task, which is an iterative design process. Power planning is that part of the floorplanning in VLSI physical design where power grid networks are designed in order to provide adequate power to all the underlying ... » read more

The Key is Left under the Mat: On the Inappropriate Security Assumption of Logic Locking Schemes


Abstract: "Logic locking has been proposed as an obfuscation technique to protect outsourced IC designs from IP piracy by untrusted entities in the design and fabrication process. In this case, the netlist is locked by adding extra key-gates, and will be unlocked only if a correct key is applied to the key-gates. The key is assumed to be written into a non-volatile memory after the fabricati... » read more

Week In Review: Manufacturing, Test


Chipmakers and OEMs Third Point, a hedge fund, released a letter, saying that Intel needs to explore its strategic alternatives. This includes the breakup of the chip giant. Obtained by Yahoo and others, the letter says Intel needs to decide “whether Intel should remain an integrated device manufacturer” and should divest certain failed acquisitions. Here’s another analysis of the sit... » read more

Week In Review: Design, Low Power


The United States Army Research Laboratory is acquiring two new supercomputers, nicknamed Jean and Jay after computing pioneers Jean Jennings Bartik and Kathleen “Kay” McNulty Mauchly, according to an article in NextGov. The two systems are Liqid Computing platforms containing 48 core Intel XEON (Cascade Lake Advanced Performance) processors integrated with the largest solid state file syst... » read more

Week In Review: Auto, Security, Pervasive Computing


Automotive/Mobility China-based Great Wall Motor (GWM) will use Qualcomm Technologies’ Snapdragon Ride Platform to create a semi-autonomous driving system that will be in higher-end production vehicles in 2022, according to a press release. GWM is creating a L2+ and L3 driving systems with multiple high-res cameras and multi-source heterogenous sensors, using Snapdragon Ride Platform, which ... » read more

Top Tech Videos Of 2020


2020 shaped up to be a year of major upheaval, emerging markets and even increased demand in certain sectors. So it's not surprising that videos focusing on AI, balancing power and performance, designing and manufacturing at advanced nodes, advanced packaging, and automotive-related subjects were the most popular. Of the 68 videos published this year, the following were the most viewed in ea... » read more

Testing More To Boost Profits


Not all chips measure up to spec, but as more data becomes available and the cost of these devices continues to rise, there is increasing momentum to salvage and re-purpose chips for other applications and markets. Performance-based binning is as old as color-banded resistors, but the practice is spreading — even for the most advanced nodes and packages. Over the last three decades, engine... » read more

Blog Review: Dec. 30


Cadence's Paul McLellan considers what the next ten years will look like for the RISC-V ISA with an expanding software ecosystem and increasing number of commercial and open cores available. Siemens EDA's Harry Foster checks out the languages and libraries being used to design and verify FPGAs and how they've changed over the last several years. Synopsys' Jonathan Knudsen contends that IT... » read more

← Older posts Newer posts →