Formal Verification’s Usefulness Widens


Formal verification is being deployed more often and in more places in chip designs as the number of possible interactions grows, and as those chips are used in more critical applications. In the past, much of formal verification was focused on whether a chip would function properly. But as designs become more complex and heterogeneous, and as use cases change, formal verification is being u... » read more

Blog Review: Jan. 31


Synopsys' William Ruby argues for a comprehensive energy-efficient design methodology for automotive ICs as today's vehicles demand ever more computing power to support electrification, communication, and processing of massive amounts of data. Cadence's Mellacheruvu Srikanth finds that verifying all the new features and enhancements across several generations of PCIe while maintaining backwa... » read more

Why There Are Still No Commercial 3D-ICs


Building chips in three dimensions is drawing increased attention and investment, but so far there have been no announcements about commercial 3D-IC chips. There are some fundamental problems that must be overcome and new tools that need to be developed. In contrast, the semiconductor industry is becoming fairly comfortable with 2.5D integration, where individual dies are assembled on some k... » read more

EDA Back On Investors’ Radar


EDA is transforming from a staid but strategic sector into a hot investment market, fueled by strong earnings and growth, a clamoring for leading-edge and increasingly customized designs across new and existing markets, and the rollout of advanced technologies such as AI for a range of tools that will be needed to develop new architectures with much greater performance per watt. A confluence... » read more

IC Tool Vendors Eye Cloud-Native Future


The promise of scalability and efficiency is accelerating the migration of electronic design automation (EDA) to the cloud. Unlimited on-demand compute resources fundamentally change the chip design paradigm, where tools and workloads are no longer constrained by localized hardware. This is easier said than done, however. Optimizing existing tools and infrastructure, creating a new generatio... » read more

Respect? Confused


In a recent story, I talked about how EDA has gained respect in the financial markets, which is something it has failed to do for decades. EDA, in the eyes of Wall Street, had become a plodder through good times and bad, failing to achieve the growth shown by semiconductor companies or foundries, or the rapid rise to glory of other software companies. Of course, it never experienced the same de... » read more

Five Digital Threads Unify And Simplify Electronic Systems Design And Manufacturing


By Matthew Walsh and Matt Bromley Digital transformation involves the integration of digital technologies and the reimagining of business processes to enhance operations, improve customer experiences, and drive innovation. Digital threads are a key component of this transformation, as they enable the seamless flow of data and information across various stages of a process, system, or organiz... » read more

Shifting Left Using Model-Based Engineering


As heterogenous integration increases design complexity and forces engineers out of long-standing silos, model-based systems engineering (MBSE) is becoming essential for improving quality and reducing failures in the field. While it may seem like a new buzzword, MBSE's principles date back to the 1990s. In essence, it's a process of building models that enable early decisions, which pays off... » read more

Will 2024 Be The Year Of Layered Realities?


January is always the month of predictions. Our team has already contributed to Semiconductor Engineering's 2023 Look Back and 2024 Outlook. My personal tradition has become to combine the outlook with a look back at what industry experts thought of a decade ago. While this involved a trip to my garage to pick up the respective January IEEE Spectrum issue a decade ago, the new reality is that a... » read more

Why Is The Power Device Market So Hot Right Now?


Growing adoption of electric vehicles (EVs) and renewable energy sources is putting the spotlight on power semiconductor devices. These power devices have always been essential in determining the efficiency of a variety of systems, from small household electronics to equipment used in outer space. But as calls to reduce carbon emissions get louder, the market for these chips continues to flouri... » read more

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