New Design For Trusted Data


Recently, I wrote about Fully Homomorphic Encryption (FHE from now on) which I think is going to be something big that you will hear lots about in the future. Here's the reason I think it is going to be big. The people who care the most about security, such as financial institutions, governments, and companies with huge amounts of valuable data (such as semiconductor companies, or social m... » read more

Wi-Fi 6 For Low-Power IoT


The internet of things, known as the IoT, is a rapidly growing market, and no surprise. While some question the need to connect everything to the internet, if it’s simple and cost-effective it’s a no brainer. Wireless sensors are a case in point. You can monitor equipment to detect any indication of equipment failure, check temperatures in your restaurant to ensure your fridge remains co... » read more

Imagination’s Approach To Business In China


In my role as Imagination’s CSO, I have been asked several times today whether Imagination would hive off its China operations into a China JV. My first response to this question is “Why?” And this generates several responses.  The conversation goes something like this: “Because you have to!” No, not at all. Nobody has asked us to do that – we can transact business in China ... » read more

Scaling Anti-Tamper Protection To Meet Escalating Threats


Anti-tamper tends to be one of those catchall phrases encompassing any countermeasure on a security chip. A more precise definition would be that anti-tamper protection is any collection of countermeasures that serves to thwart an adversary’s attempt to monitor or affect the correct operation of a chip or a security core within a chip. Given that, it can be useful to think about a hierarchy o... » read more

How To Meet Functional Safety Requirements With Built-In-Self-Test


With the rapid growth in semiconductor content in today’s vehicles, IC designers need to improve their process of meeting functional safety requirements defined by the ISO 26262 standard. The ISO 26262 standard defines the levels of functional safety, known as Automotive Safety Integrity Level (ASIL), and is a mandatory part of an automotive system design process. The ASIL categories range... » read more

Don’t Underestimate The Multiphase Buck Voltage Regulator


Step-down (buck) voltage regulators have long been the preferred DC-DC conversion electronic workhorse thanks to their inherently high efficiency. Only in buck mode the current is directed to the output during the entire cycle. The higher delivery of current to the output, per cycle, makes the buck converter the most efficient architecture. As one of many examples, modern microprocessors, from ... » read more

3 Ways To Improve Design Collaboration: Part 2


In the last blog in this series, we talked about how VDD can help design and layout engineers work more efficiently. Communicating precise and accurate information is a key factor in improving productivity, estimates, and the planning process. Visualizing the changes makes it easier to follow the technical details. The ECO (Engineering Change Order) phase is an important phase in the lifecycle... » read more

Building Your Own NoC And The Hazards Of (Not) Changing


There is a perennial challenge that all R&D organizations face – how much of what we develop is essential to our competitive advantage and how much can be acquired at lower cost and risk rather than built from scratch? It’s easy to believe in the heat of battle that everything we are doing must be crucial. But the world continues to change around us. What was optional yesterday may be e... » read more

Faster Formal Verification Closure For Datapaths In AI Designs


In recent years, many longstanding assumptions about formal verification have been rendered obsolete by ever-improving technology. Applications such as connectivity checking have shown that formal can work on large system-on-chip (SoC) designs, not just small blocks. Standard SystemVerilog Assertions (SVA) have eliminated the need to learn an abstruse mathematical language for each new formal t... » read more

AI Drives A New Wave For Semiconductors


In Cadence's recent earnings call, Lip-Bu Tan, our CEO, talked about the five waves that are hitting us simultaneously. Here's what he said: First of all, I'm excited about this industry, because it's very unusual to have five major waves happening at the same time. You have the AI machine learning wave and you have 5G is starting to deploy and then you have the hyperscale guy, the really mas... » read more

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