Efficient Verification Of RISC-V Processors


For some time, application-specific instruction processors (ASIPs) have been developed for specialized applications. These have required multi-disciplinary teams with sufficient expertise to develop the instruction set, microarchitecture, and software toolchain. Few companies have had the right combination of skills to develop ASIPs so relatively few have been developed. With the advent of R... » read more

Best Practices For Cybersecurity-Aware SoC Development With ISO 21434


The growth of electronics in cars is exposing a new vector for cyberattacks on owners and automotive companies’ reputations. The potential human cost of an attack on the car’s electronics is driving urgency in the adoption of cybersecurity-aware practices, from OEMs and Tier 1s to every component supplier in the automotive industry. The standard “ISO/SAE 21434:2021 Road vehicles — Cyber... » read more

Blog Review: Feb. 15


Siemens EDA's Harry Foster examines the relationship between verification maturity and non-trivial bug escapes into production, as well as whether safety critical development processes yield higher quality in terms of preventing bugs and achieving silicon success. Synopsys' Shankar Krishnamoorthy finds that the rapid progress of machine learning models is driving demand for more domain-speci... » read more

Week In Review: Design, Low Power


Arm is heading for an IPO this year, with plans "fairly well developed and underway now," CEO Rene Haas told Reuters. Arm reported fiscal Q3 revenue of $746 million, up 28% compared with the same period in 2021, setting the stage for a public offering. The company noted it had double- or triple-revenue increases in automotive, consumer, infrastructure, and IoT. The Si2 Compact Model Coalit... » read more

Blog Review: Feb. 8


Cadence's Sanjeet Kumar points to key changes and optimizations that are done for USB3 Gen T compared to USB3 Gen X tunneling in order to minimize tunnel overhead and maximize USB3 throughput. Siemens EDA's Harry Foster considers the effectiveness of IC and ASIC verification by looking at schedule overruns, number of required spins, and classification of functional bugs. Synopsys' Chris C... » read more

Week in Review: Design, Low Power


Intel discontinued its Pathfinder for RISC-V program, according to numerous reports. The program provided a pre-silicon development environment to support IP selection and early-stage software development using Intel FPGA and simulator platforms. "Since Intel will not be providing any additional releases or bug fixes, we encourage you to promptly transition to third-party RISC-V software tools ... » read more

Blog Review: Feb. 1


Siemens EDA's Harry Foster explores trends in low power design techniques for ICs and ASICs, with 72% of design projects reported actively managing power. Synopsys' Charlie Matar, Rita Horner, and Pawini Mahajan look at the concept of reliability, availability, and serviceability (RAS) in the context of high-performance computing SoC designs and how it can be supported with silicon lifecycle... » read more

Importance Of Qualifying IP Revisions


Design intellectual property (IP) is the fundamental building block of the modern system on chip (SoC). As the scale and complexity of SoCs increases, usage of design IP blocks also increases rapidly, as they enable modularization and re-use of design components. As a result, the usage of design IP has grown rapidly in the past decade. An IP data library consists of many views and formats, w... » read more

A New Year’s Wish


Every year I run a predictions article. It is a mashup of ideas from many people within the industry, and while many predictions are somewhat self-serving, there are other which come more from the heart — or perhaps they are dreams rather than expectations. I see hope in some of those, particularly the ones that look toward sustainability within our industry, and of our industry. Just like... » read more

The Importance Of Phase-Coherent RF Signal


As the number of higher-throughput applications grows, so does the need for wider bandwidth and network coverage in wireless systems. Given limited spectrum allocation, wireless communication engineers must look for ways to improve spectral efficiency and the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of systems. Multiple-input / multiple-output (MIMO) and beamforming can help RF designers achieve diversity, ... » read more

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