Toward A Lingua Franca For Intelligent System Design


As the EDA industry is moving up further and further towards the intelligent design of full systems, this year’s Forum on Design Languages (FDL) offered a great update on the status quo with regard to where languages fit into this transition. It looks like the next step will not be one universal language as previously targeted back when there was a flurry of introductions of new programming m... » read more

Fast-Track Your Early SoC Design Exploration And Verification


By Nermeen Hossam and John Ferguson Most advanced node system-on-chip (SoC) designs are very large, and very complex. They typically contain many blocks and intellectual property (IP) that perform specialized functions, such as computation, internal communications, and signal processing. These blocks are often built by separate teams or IP suppliers, and integrated into the SoC layout. Howev... » read more

No More Pizza! The Power Of HPC To Answer: “What’s For Dinner?”


The other night my wife and I were trying to pick a place we could both agree on for dinner. If you’ve ever been in this situation, you know it can be a difficult problem to solve. I decided to short circuit the usual torture by asking our virtual assistant for a solution. “Hey [Virtual Assistant], where’s a good place to eat?” Thus ensued 15 minutes of intermittent, wrong answers, misc... » read more

Long And Longer Reach SerDes – On The Road Again


We’ve had the pleasure of participating in two events over the past two weeks. I wouldn’t recommend doing two major shows back-to-back, but it has been exhilarating and quite interesting. Our “road trip” began last week in Mountain View for the second annual AI Hardware Summit. You’ve probably noticed you can go to an AI-related show every week (or more) if you like. The trick is to f... » read more

In-System Networks Are Front And Center


This year’s HotChips conference at Stanford was all about artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) and what particularly struck me, naturally because we’re in this business too, was how big a role on-chip networks played in some of the leading talks. NVIDIA talked about their scalable mesh architecture, both on-chip and in-package, meshes connecting processing NN processing el... » read more

Chip Security Needs A New Language


By Sven Beyer and Sergio Marchese Safety- and security-critical systems, such as connected autonomous vehicles, require high-integrity integrated circuits (ICs). Functional correctness and safety are necessary to establish IC integrity, but not sufficient. Security is another critical pillar of IC integrity. Systems and products using ICs with security vulnerabilities ultimately undermine th... » read more

Fast LFD Flows With Pattern Matching And Machine Learning Can Deliver Higher-Yielding Designs Faster


By Wael ElManhawy and Joe Kwan A lithographic (litho) hotspot is a defect on a wafer that is created during manufacturing by a combination of systematic process variation and resolution enhancement technology (RET) limitations. Litho hotspots typically represent severe yield detractors, so detecting and eliminating potential litho hotspots prior to manufacturing is crucial to achieving a com... » read more

Clock Domain Crossing Signoff Through Static-Formal-Simulation


By Sudeep Mondal and Sean O'Donohue Clocking issues are one of the most common reasons for costly design re-spins. This has been the driving factor in the ever-increasing demand for Clock Domain Crossing (CDC) analysis tools. Today, the majority of IP and SoC teams are focusing on “Structural CDC” analysis, which is important but not sufficient. Structural CDC analysis ensures that the d... » read more

Responsibility And Automotive Security


I came across this excellent, thought-provoking white paper from NTT Security and felt that some of the insights were worth sharing. Some of our previous blogs have discussed the cost implications of automotive cybersecurity for vehicle manufacturers, and the potential implications for the driver and passengers of vehicles. But this paper got me thinking about another angle – responsibilit... » read more

A Holistic View Of RISC-V Verification


Last month, we discussed the growth of the RISC-V open processor ecosystem, the two main organizations driving it, and the role that OneSpin plays. In addition, we have become very active in the RISC-V community and have more than a dozen technical articles published, conference talks presented, and upcoming talks accepted. We tend to focus on the challenges of verifying RISC-V IP cores and sys... » read more

← Older posts Newer posts →