System Design Enabling The Human Intranet


Against the always-impressive backdrop of the French Alps, DATE took place earlier this month in Grenoble. DATE has quietly transformed from a European version of DAC into a very interesting technical conference with some very high-caliber attendees. This year, I had the pleasure to participate as session chair for the design tools section, themed “Designing Electronics for the Internet of Th... » read more

Speaking IoT In Many Languages


Let’s face it, Internet of Things (IoT) is a hot topic. Depending on whom you believe, it’s a $300 billion to $19 trillion market opportunity involving 25 billion to 100 billion devices by 2020. These are all huge numbers – they could make Alan Turing himself dizzy. The sheer size of these numbers means good things for the market in general, and for some companies in the tech sector speci... » read more

Focus More Attention On The SoC’s Central Nervous System


In multiple conversations over the years, I’ve often compared the interconnect fabric within SoC designs to the central nervous system of the human body. The point that I try to make is that the potential of the SoC’s performance and functionality is tied to the information that travels through the fabric and interconnect to all the on-chip IP components. Improving a chip’s ability to com... » read more

Customized On-Chip Process Monitors


The sensitivity of digital circuits to process variations is continuously increasing with scaling in MOSFET devices. The effect of process variations has a substantial impact on the power, performance, and reliability of products. These process variations can be local or across the chip or wafer-to-wafer, or even lot-to-lot. These process variations need to be observed and analyzed in order to ... » read more

Chip-Package-Board Optimization: The Future Of Integrated Co-Design


Multi-die and three-dimensional packages have made breakout and routing of extremely high-pin-count devices on PCBs very difficult. Keeping track of all the signals and pins is also a task that has just about outgrown current methods. Many companies simply use a spreadsheet for tracking signals. With no central database or accurate device modeling and rule-based optimization, design intent is o... » read more

Tech Talk: IoT Design Changes


eSilicon's Lisa Minwell talks with Semiconductor Engineering about what's needed to push Internet of Things designs down to the microwatt range, and how to bridge the gap between what's available today and what's needed for the future. [youtube vid= bk3BgtJnFpg] » read more

DDR4 Board Design And Signal Integrity Verification Challenges


This paper, originally presented at DesignCon and nominated for a best paper award, includes an investigation of DDR4's Pseudo Open Drain driver and what its use means for power consumption and Vref levels for the receivers. This paper also examines a DDR4 system design example and the need for simulating with IBIS power aware models versus transistor level models for Simultaneous Switching ... » read more

From Medical And Wearables To Big Data


Whether it’s a tiny always-on medical device or a secure cloud network processing Big Data, the Internet of Things is bringing new challenges to IC design. This white paper provides techniques and IP examples for managing IoT’s power and bandwidth demands. To read more, click here. » read more

Busting The 3 Big Common Myths About Physical Prototyping


FPGA-based prototyping is so popular because it provides an economical way to functionally validate an ASIC design by creating a prototype that runs “at speed”, includes real world I/O, and enables early software development. Experienced prototypers are familiar with its benefits but there are still designers opposed to physical prototyping because they believe that it does not scale to sup... » read more

Blog Review: March 25


From brain implants that recover memories to color-shifting shoes, Ansys' Bill Vandermark features sci-fi visions of the future that are becoming reality in his top five tech picks of the week. In the world of embedded software, is a black box better? Mentor's Colin Walls questions whether the advantages that come of having full access to source code outweigh the downsides. Cadence's Neel... » read more

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