Blog Review: May 4


Ready for a scuba-diving robot? Also in this week's top picks, Ansys' Justin Nescott highlights the latest, strange discovery about water plus the race to Mars. From depositing a check via smartphone to the throwaway culture of smartphones themselves, letting convenience trump security is dangerous, warns Cadence's Paul McLellan. Synopsys' Robert Vamosi looks at the sad demise of Hitomi, ... » read more

System Bits: May 3


Neural network synapses In a development that could potentially be used as a basis for the hardware implementation of artificial neural networks, Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (MIPT) researchers have created prototypes of electronic synapses based on ultra-thin films of hafnium oxide (HfO2). The team made the HfO2-based memristors measuring just 40x40 nm2, which exhibit propert... » read more

Turning Verification Inside Out


A new motivation for rebalancing came to me during a conversation I had a couple weeks ago at the Agile Alliance Technical Conference. I had the chance to compare my day-to-day responsibilities with those of Lisa Crispin. Lisa is a software test expert that is very well regarded within the [getkc id="182" comment="Agile Development"] community. Think of her as a Harry Foster/Janick Bergeron typ... » read more

Automating System Design


Change is underway in the chip design world, creating opportunities and challenges that reach far beyond questions about whether Moore’s Law is slowing or stopping. Never before in the history of semiconductors has design been so complex and sophisticated, and never has it touched so many lives in so many interesting ways. This is all happening as a result of the chip’s enabling role in ... » read more

Unintended Patent Consequences


Section 101 of the U.S. patent law limits the types of things for which patent protection can be sought. It says: "Whoever invents or discovers any new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof, may obtain a patent therefor, subject to the conditions and requirements of this title." In 2012, the Supreme Court made what they t... » read more

The Week In Review: Design/IoT


IP & Chips Synopsys debuted MIPI I3CSM controller IP, which incorporates in-band interrupts within the 2-wire interface to deliver low pin count. The IP supports all data rates up to 26.7 Mbps, dynamic address allocation, multi-master operations and 32-bit ARM AMBA Advanced Peripheral Bus slave interface. Marvell unveiled a family of Ethernet transceivers fully optimized for 2.5Gbps a... » read more

Cheap Money Effects


The mergers and acquisition activity that has reshaped the semiconductor industry over the past couple of years resembles a frenzy of acquisition activity that has occurred multiple times in previous boom years. But this round comes with a twist. It's being driven by historically low interest rates, which means it probably won't stop until interest rates rise and the cost of borrowing capital f... » read more

ESL Flow is Dead


It was 20 years ago that Gary Smith coined the term [getkc id="48" comment="Electronic System Level"] (ESL). He foresaw the next logical migration in abstraction up from the [getkc id="49" comment="Register Transfer Level"] (RTL) to something that would be capable of describing and building complex electronic systems. He also saw that the future of EDA depended upon who would control that marke... » read more

Way Too Much Data


Moving to the next process nodes will produce volumes more data, forcing chipmakers to adopt more expensive hardware to process and utilize that data, more end-to-end methodologies, as well as using tools and approaches that in the past were frequently considered optional. Moreover, where that data needs to be dealt with is changing as companies adopt a "shift left" approach to developing so... » read more

Bridging Hardware And Software


The barriers between hardware and software design and verification are breaking down with more intricately integrated systems, bringing together different disciplines and tools. But there are lingering questions about exactly what this shift means design methodologies, team interactions, and what kind of training will be required in the future. Playing heavily into this is the fact that toda... » read more

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