Verifying A RISC-V Processor


Verifying an SoC is very different than verifying a processor due to the huge state space in the processor. In addition to the tools needed for an SoC, additional tools are required for a step and compare environment. Larry Lapides, vice president at Imperas, talks about the need to verify asynchronous events like interrupts, how to compare a reference model to RTL, and the need for both hardwa... » read more

EDA Revenue Up Again


The EDA industry reached $3.963 billion in revenue in Q2, boosted by a 17.6% increase in computer-aided engineering and a 17.2% increase in IP physical design and verification, according to a just-released ESD Alliance Electronic Market Data report. The overall growth was offset by an accounting change in the IP business, which resulted in a 11.6% decline to $1.255 billion, as well as some w... » read more

Blog Review: October 11


Cadence's Sangeeta Soni examines Integrity and Data Encryption (IDE) verification considerations for Compute Express Link (CXL) devices, including MAC generation and handling, key programming and exchange, and early MAC termination. Synopsys' Madhumita Sanyal points to how the increased bandwidth of PCIe 6.0 supports the demanding requirements of AI accelerators. Siemens' Kevin Webb expla... » read more

Blog Review: October 4


Cadence's Felipe Goncalves checks out the Integrity and Data Encryption (IDE) feature in PCIe 6.0, a new layer inserted between the transection layer and data link layer with the goal of protecting against threats from physical attacks on the link. Siemens' Robin Bornoff, Daniel Berger, and Kai Liu explore the potential for large language models (LLMs) make the use of CAE tools simpler, more... » read more

Everyone’s A System Designer With Heterogeneous Integration


The move away from monolithic SoCs to heterogeneous chips and chiplets in a package is accelerating, setting in motion a broad shift in methodologies, collaborations, and design goals that are felt by engineers at every step of the flow, from design through manufacturing. Nearly every engineer is now working or touching some technology, process, or methodology that is new. And they are inter... » read more

Application-Optimized Processors


Executing a neural network on top of an NPU requires an understanding of application requirements, such as latency and throughput, as well as the potential partitioning challenges. Sharad Chole, chief scientist and co-founder of Expedera, talks about fine-grained dependencies, why processing packets out of order can help optimize performance and power, and when to use voltage and frequency scal... » read more

Chip Industry Week In Review


By Susan Rambo, Liz Allan, and Gregory Haley. TSMC rolled out the second version of its 3Dblox, which creates an infrastructure for stacking chiplets and other necessary components in a package, along with a standardized way of achieving that. Two novel features are chiplet mirroring for design reuse, and what is basically sandbox for power and thermal analysis of different design elements. ... » read more

The Federation Needs A Taxonomy


While putting together the story about federated simulation, it brought back memories of an earlier part of my career when I spent a lot of time looking at modeling abstractions and simulation frameworks. In the mid-1990s, the notions of re-using pre-designed blocks of IP started to become popular, but the fledgling industry was in disarray. Every IP block had a different set of deliverables... » read more

Accelerating Analog Design Migration


Today’s electronic chips are commonly comprised of a mix of analog, RF, and digital components, with increasing functionalities, complexities, and numbers of transistors reaching the trillions. While the digital side of the house can take advantage of automated design implementation tools, the analog world has always been more about doing things manually and in a very “custom” way—which... » read more

Network-on-Chips Enabling Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning Everywhere


Recently, I attended the AI HW Summit in Santa Clara and Autosens in Brussels. Artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML) were critical themes for both events, albeit from different angles. While AI/ML as a buzzword is very popular these days in all its good and bad ways, in discussions with customers and prospects, it became clear that we need to be precise in defining what type of A... » read more

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