SoC Platforms Gain Steam


By Ed Sperling Platforms are attracting far more attention from makers of SoCs because they are pre-verified and can speed time to market, but the shift isn’t so simple. It will spark major changes in the way companies design and build chips, causing significant disruption across the entire SoC ecosystem. Platforms are nothing new in the processor and software world. Intel, IBM AMD, and N... » read more

Wreaking Havoc


By Ann Steffora Mutschler With PCB circuits running at very fast speeds today, the layout becomes part of the circuit. In designs such as DDR3 and PCIe, the fastest memory and high-speed serial performance comes with specific physical layout requirements that are not obvious. There are unexpected challenges, important high-speed considerations and efficient ways to account for them in high-spe... » read more

Smarter Co-design With Models


By Ann Steffora Mutschler IC, package and PCB co-design methodologies are starting to be adopted by semiconductor companies. However, the existing die abstract file used in these flows to exchange data between the IC designer and the downstream package design team may not contain enough detail to drive advanced planning and optimization with the package and PCB interfaces. Engineering teams... » read more

printf(“I Like”);


By Achim Nohl Debugging software by adding printf statements in the code is not considered the cleanest and most advanced debugging approach, but when you are searching for the root cause of a problem you often look to the debugging method you are most familiar with and can apply easily. The hurdle of setting up a complex debug or trace tool is counterproductive when dealing with schedule c... » read more

Who Calls The Shots?


By Kurt Shuler Who REALLY calls the shots in chip design today? That sounds like a stupid question. Who really calls the shots in chip design today? Well, chip designers of course. But you’re wrong if you mean to say that the traditional semiconductor manufacturers are the ones who always do all the hefty work of chip design, including determining requirements, performing technical tra... » read more

The Power Of Dark Silicon


By Frank Ferro Even though the cloud is permeating everything we do today, I was recently reminded that it's even omnipresent far outside the walls of tech. With all the TV ads, as well as our most prominent airports and U.S. highways peppered with cloud-based billboards, even our parents know how to properly use cloud in sentence today. But to hear about the cloud from the pulpit at church on... » read more

Motorcycle Diaries


By Jon McDonald I recently had reason to add another vehicle to my household. My son is starting to drive, so he's taking my car. Instead of another car I decided to get a motorcycle. I have had a couple, but it's been a few years. After much browsing I decided on a Ducati, I picked it up a few weeks ago. It has an impressive number of user adjustable electronic controls, everything from AB... » read more

Experts At The Table: Does 20nm Break System-Level Design?


By Ann Steffora Mutschler System-Level Design sat down to discuss design at 20nm with Drew Wingard, chief technology officer at Sonics; Kelvin Low, deputy director of product marketing at GlobalFoundries, Frank Schirrmeister, group director of product marketing for system development in the system and software realization group at Cadence; and Mike Gianfagna, vice president of marketing at At... » read more

Multi-Source CTS Delivers Flexible High Performance and Variation Tolerance


Multi-source clock tree is a hybrid containing the best aspects of a conventional clock tree and a pure clock mesh. This paper illustrates the benefits such as lower skew and better on-chip-variation (OCV) performance compared to a conventional clock tree. To download this white paper, click here. » read more

Achieving Fast And Accurate Extraction Of 3D-IC Layout Structures


The electronics industry is devoting a lot of energy to exploring “More than Moore’s Law” approaches that drive continued value scaling through system integration, rather than (or in addition to) shrinking transistors. One of the most promising techniques is the creation of 3D-ICs using TSV structures. However, accurately modeling a 3D multi-die system requires tools that extract precise ... » read more

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