Design Infrastructure Alley at DAC 2019


2018 marked the first year of the Design Infrastructure Alley (DIA) at DAC. It was the first time that DAC devoted floorspace to discussing the unique IT needs of the semiconductor industry. Some of the big issues we are looking to address at DAC include: Increased Focus on Data/IP Security Semiconductor companies have traditionally had a very open, collegial way of working. The emphasis... » read more

ISO 26262:2018, 2nd Edition: What Changes?


If you’re involved somehow in design for automotive electronics, you probably have more than a cursory understanding of the ISO 26262 standard. What your organization is working from is most likely the 2011 definition. The most recent update is formally known as ISO 26262:2018, less formally as ISO 26262 2nd Edition. Figure 1. Overview of the ISO 26262:2018 series of standards (Source IS... » read more

Use Inference Benchmarks Similar To Your Application


If an Inference IP supplier or Inference Accelerator Chip supplier offers a benchmark, it is probably ResNet-50. As a result, it might seem logical to use ResNet-50 to compare inference offerings. If you plan to use ResNet-50 it would be; but if your target application model is significantly different from Resnet-50 it could lead you to pick an inference offering that is not best for you. ... » read more

Achieving Flexible Processing Requirements For IoT End-Node Devices


The term Internet of Things (IoT), which used to be used broadly to describe almost all connected devices, can now be seen to fall into two segments: Critical IoT and Massive IoT. Critical IoT refers to mission-critical applications such as automotive communication, industrial machines, and medical procedures where low latency is crucial, while Massive IoT is related to the billions of connecte... » read more

Automotive IC Design Demands Next-Generation High-Sigma Verification


By Jeff Dyck High-sigma analysis is required for verifying replicated components, like memory blocks and standard cells, and for demonstrating mission-critical reliability for automotive and medical applications. It is not feasible to verify to high-sigma using brute-force Monte Carlo, as this requires 10s of millions of simulations to reach 5-sigma and billions in order to reach 6-sigma. S... » read more

What Does Cybersecurity Have To Do With Semiconductors?


More than ever, electronic devices are critical to everyday life and semiconductor chips are the brains inside the devices that run the world. They wake us in the morning, keep us up to date with the news, emails and conversations, handle our daily chores, and even keep us alive in the hospitals. For example, laptops, smartphones, the Internet, the banks, automobile controls and an endless list... » read more

Scaling To Meet Engineering Challenges In Transportation


If you’re working on anything related to self-driving cars, you’re likely pondering the tradeoff between what’s technically possible and socially feasible. Example: what do you do if the posted speed is 25mph while the local norms are to travel at least 30 mph? Obey the law and annoy the drivers around you? Or follow the herd and risk the ire of local law enforcement and officials who are... » read more

The Case For Antifuse OTP NVM For Secure & Reliable SoCs


Non-volatile memory (NVM) is used for persistent data and secure code storage in a wide range of electronic systems in automotive, mil-aero, power management IC (PMIC), mobile, and Internet of Things (IoT) markets. NVM comes in different flavors including multiple-time programmable (MTP), few-time programmable (FTP), and one-time programmable (OTP). When determining the ideal NVM solution, desi... » read more

AI Chips: NoC Interconnect IP Solves Three Design Challenges


New network-on-chip (NoC) interconnect IP is now available for artificial intelligence (AI) systems-on-chip (SoC). Arteris IP launched the fourth generation of the FlexNoC interconnect IP with a new optional AI package. The novel NoC interconnect technologies solves many data flow problems in today’s AI designs. Innovative features address the requirements of the next-generation of AI chips t... » read more

Lies, Damn Lies, And TOPS/Watt


There are almost a dozen vendors promoting inferencing IP, but none of them gives even a ResNet-50 benchmark. The only information they state typically is TOPS (Tera-Operations/Second) and TOPS/Watt. These two indicators of performance and power efficiency are almost useless by themselves. So what, exactly, does X TOPS really tell you about performance for your application? When a vendor ... » read more

← Older posts Newer posts →