category: Top Stories

category: Auto, Security & Edge AI

Packaging Tradeoffs More Complex Than Ever
By Ed Sperling - 24 May, 2012 - Comments: 0

By Ann Steffora Mutschler Driven by high-speed interfaces, the demand for TSVs and the complexities that new process nodes bring, older packaging technologies like wirebonding can’t keep up. The latest and greatest flip chip technologies offer much more flexibility, but at a cost. As such, the package plays a larger role than ever in determining system specifications because, depending o... » read more

IaaS vs. SaaS
By Ed Sperling - 24 May, 2012 - Comments: 0

By Ann Steffora Mutschler There has been a lot of confusion about what kind of cloud-based service the EDA industry offers. Here are two different business models. Infrastructure as a service (IaaS) In this most basic cloud service model, cloud providers offer computers – as physical or more often as virtual machines, raw (block) storage, firewalls , load balancers, and networks. IaaS pr... » read more

EDA’s Cloudy Vision
By Ed Sperling - 24 May, 2012 - Comments: 0

By Ann Steffora Mutschler Since the dawn of EDA, the industry has largely operated under a traditional software distribution model whereby the customer would run the software it licensed on its own hardware equipment. With the sophistication of advanced IT management techniques as well as education surrounding “The Cloud,” it may be safe to predict that engineers in the not-to-distant futu... » read more

System-Level Models Redefined
By Ed Sperling - 24 May, 2012 - Comments: 0

By Ann Steffora Mutschler It wasn’t that long ago that the promise of system-level models was an easy implementation path and the ability to then reuse the models in a different design, for a different target application. But how reusable are those models in reality? The answer depends on whom you ask. First, it is important to define what a system-level model is, noted Frank Schirrmeiste... » read more

Gap Vs. Gap
By Ed Sperling - 26 Apr, 2012 - Comments: 0

By Ed Sperling Among tools vendors it’s been standard practice to listen closely to customers but not deliver everything they ask for—or at least not always on the customers’ timetable. This strategy has worked well enough for both sides in the past, but at 20nm and in stacked die configurations, the level of tension between these two worlds is increasing, and the gaps in the tool cha... » read more

Rethinking Timing Optimization
By Ed Sperling - 26 Apr, 2012 - Comments: 0

By Ann Steffora Mutschler As semiconductor manufacturing technology continues its march toward 20nm, SoCs are plagued with advanced interconnect delays, cross capacitance, and process variability, as well as area and power constraints—and the significance of these factors is increasing with each passing node. “With lower nodes we are getting advantage on area, more and more logic is get... » read more

From Cryptic Error Messages To Contradictory Commands
By Ed Sperling - 26 Apr, 2012 - Comments: 0

By Ann Steffora Mutschler For the past 30 years, semiconductor designers have increasingly relied on automated CAD tools to complete their projects. Over time, these tools have indeed improved from a functionality perspective, but sometimes usability has not kept up with users’ needs. Depending on which tools and what type of use, some tools are easier to use than others, according to Mik... » read more

Boosting Yield With Layout Awareness
By Ed Sperling - 26 Apr, 2012 - Comments: 0

By Ann Steffora Mutschler Yield. Just the word can make many engineers cringe and hide in their cubicles—especially with manufacturing problems and excessive power during test increasing causing failures. But the combination of physical data with diagnostics engines may be the light at the end of the tunnel, allowing for easier pinpointing of defects. There are many reasons why a chip fai... » read more

The Interconnect Game
By Ed Sperling - 26 Apr, 2012 - Comments: 0

By Ed Sperling Having a single bus protocol is something most SoC engineers can only dream about. Reality is often a jumble of protocols determined by the IP they use, which can slow down a design’s progress. The problem stems largely from re-use and legacy IP. While it might be convenient to use only on an AXI standard protocol from ARM, most chips are a combination of IP tied to specif... » read more

Managing Complexity With Advanced Packaging
By Ed Sperling - 22 Mar, 2012 - Comments: 0

By Ann Steffora Mutschler Engineering teams across the globe continue to pound the process geometry treadmill to stay on the curve of Dr. Moore to achieve better speed or lower power or smaller die—and it all adds up to increased complexity in the design and packaging. However, with advanced forms of die stacking such as package-on-package, silicon-in-package, 2.5D silicon interposer techno... » read more

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