Obsolescence Isn’t Always Good


One of the main reasons smartphones are pervasive around the globe is that their cost is subsidized. They can be replaced every couple of years with minimal pain as designs get slicker, more energy-efficient, and new features are added such as better screens or better performance. That works particularly well when a consumer's out-of-pocket expenses after trading in an older model are basically... » read more

Inside The Hybrid Memory Cube


The memory bandwidth requirements for today’s high-performance computing applications and next-generation networking applications have increased beyond what conventional memory architectures can provide. For example in a typical 400G networking application, packet buffer bandwidth requirement could be as high as 2,000 Gb/s. Achieving this level of bandwidth using the latest DDR4 memory te... » read more

Better Software. Faster! A Virtual Prototyping Case Study From Kyocera Document Solutions


From time to time I like to use this blog to provide you with an update about the "Better Software. Faster!" book that illustrates the best practices in virtual prototyping. This time, I am happy to announce that Mamoru Kani-san, senior manager, R&D department 22, software 2 R&D division of the corporate software development division of Kyocera Document Solutions, wrote a new case study... » read more

Feathers Ruffled By IEEE Patent License Changes


Standards are essential for any market to grow. Products that are completely proprietary tend to serve small niche markets whereas those based on standards can grow through collaborations, independent content creation, and many other ways. Just think about where we would be if there were no communications standards – no WiFi, no cellular standards. You would be locked into buying all of your ... » read more

Defining Functional Accuracy


I have been heavily involved in a project that recently completed. It involved creating virtual platforms (VPs) for a number of Altera’s FPGA SoCs. If you’re interested in more information, an announcement on the VP availability went out last week. Some of the modeled platforms existed and some were in various stages of development. The goal of the project was to deliver functionally acc... » read more

Getting The Right Return On Invested Power Consumption


Three weeks ago, I participated in a panel on low power and modeling at the system level. It took place at DesignCon 2015 in Santa Clara, together with representatives from AMD, Avago, and Qualcomm. Interestingly enough, it gave me the opportunity to set some of the myths and dis-information about power consumption in emulation straight, but more on that later. The panel was moderated by Steve ... » read more

Streamlining Interconnect Integration Accelerates Globally Distributed Design


As system on chip designs grow more complex, it becomes more and more difficult for chip companies to optimize the work of their distributed design teams. While each separate team has an area of expertise and sets their focus on a particular aspect of the SoC, the hard part comes in integrating these individual design efforts together. When something goes wrong and it doesn’t work, the compan... » read more

Bigger Systems, Bigger Profits


Markets work in very mysterious ways. Technology that should be a slam dunk—think 2.5D with its promise of re-usable analog IP and faster performance, for example—are still hobbling along because no one wants to deal with the risk of a new architectural and manufacturing approach. They haven't even shown up yet in servers, where price is almost irrelevant. At the same time (no pun intended)... » read more

What Will 2015 Bring For System-On-Chip Verification?


Starting a new year, I always look back at predictions from years past to see how far off they were from reality and try to understand why. Rolling back 10 years, IEEE Spectrum published its annual “Winners and Losers” issue. Looking back, three predictions stick out for me. The first one is about how we consume media. Back in the January 2005 issue of IEEE Spectrum, Internet Protocol T... » read more

IP MarketPlace – Act I


We did our first webinar for IP MarketPlace last week. Because there is such a vibrant roadmap for this rich IP exploration environment, I felt like this was merely the first act of a multi-part production. We kept our event to 30 minutes, which has been a hallmark of all our webinars. We began with a review of what IP MarketPlace is, how it works, and why it’s useful. We then proceeded to a ... » read more

← Older posts Newer posts →