Brushless Motor Control Realized


There are many products with built-in motors around us, such as air conditioners, vacuum cleaners, and electric fans. As robots, drones, and electric vehicles, which are expected to make a big change in society in the future, become more widespread, more motors will be used. Motors, which are familiar to us as described above, are classified into several types according to the structures. Am... » read more

Turning MBSE Inside-Out For An RF EDA Shift Left


Model-based systems engineering (MBSE) focuses on creating and exploiting domain models in a digital modeling language. RF system designers trying to use generic MBSE tools soon run into a problem: developing behavioral models. Without high-fidelity models, simulations miss real-world results, and a digital twin won’t be worth the effort. What’s helping RF teams get engineering tasks done i... » read more

Autonomous Design Automation: How Far Are We?


The year is 2009, during the Design Automation Conference (DAC) at a press dinner in a posh little restaurant in San Francisco’s Civic Center. About two glasses of red wine in, one of the journalists challenges the table: “So, how far away are we from the black box that we feed with our design requirements and it produces the design that we send to the foundry?” We discussed all the indus... » read more

Overcoming The Growing Challenge Of Dynamic IR-Drop


IR-drop has always been somewhat of an issue in chip design; voltage decreases as current travels along any path with any resistance. Ohm’s Law is likely the first thing that every electrical engineer learns. But the challenges related to IR-drop (sometimes called voltage drop) have increased considerably in recent years, especially the dynamic IR-drop in the power/ground grid as circuits swi... » read more

The Value Of RF Harmonic Balance Analyses For Analog Verification


By Pradeep Thiagarajan and Scott Guyton The world we live in is intricately connected by electronic systems that are expected to function flawlessly to satisfy consumer needs. Functionality violations beyond certain tolerance levels are frowned upon and negatively impact the quality level of products. These systems are required to function accurately, in tandem with other interdependent syst... » read more

Improve Your Verification Methodology: Hunt Bugs Flying In Squadrons


After analyzing bugs on several generations of CPUs, I came to the conclusion that “bugs fly in squadrons.” In other words, when a bug is found in a given area of the design, the probability that there are other bugs with similar conditions, in the same area of the design, is quite high. Processor bugs don’t fly alone Finding a CPU bug is always satisfying, however it should not be an e... » read more

Radar For Automotive: Why Do We Need Radar?


Communications and sensing technologies have transformed the automotive industry. More and more, cars include features and systems to interact with their environment, gaining awareness of the surrounding space, networking with each other and with the infrastructure, and detecting possible sources of danger. We can consider that vehicles have acquired their own “senses”: they know where they... » read more

Parasitic Characterization Comes To Power Design Simulation


Two power design challenges are taking teams into unfamiliar territory. Wide bandgap (WBG) semiconductors target greater efficiency and density. Stricter EMI compliance regulations now come standard in mission-critical industries. Power design practices are still catching up. Simulation often takes a back seat to respinning hardware prototypes until success. What’s missing that could make sim... » read more

Who Will Own Debug?


Recently, I had an interesting conversation with a verification leader of one of the world’s leading semiconductors companies. He has some 150 verification engineers in his organization and the group has been exploring EDA solutions for many years. While we’ve exchanged many ideas about EDA and innovation, one sentence that he said stays in my head: Whoever will own debug, will own th... » read more

Where Do Memory Maps Come From?


A memory map is the bridge between a system-on-chip (SoC) and the firmware and software that is executed on it. Engineers may assume the map automatically appears, but the reality is much more involved. The union of hardware (HW) and software (SW) demands both planning and compromise. The outcome of this merger will not be fully realized until the magical day when the system comes to life. T... » read more

← Older posts Newer posts →