When Bugs Escape


Bugs are a fact of life, and they always have been. But verification methodologies may not have evolved fast enough to keep up with the growing size and complexity of systems. The types of bugs are changing, too. Some people call these corner cases. Others call them outliers. Still another group refers to them as simulation-resistance superbugs. In markets such as automotive, the notion o... » read more

Where ML Works Best


Anirudh Devgan, president of Cadence, sat down with Semiconductor Engineering to discuss machine learning inside and outside of EDA tools and how that will affect the future of chip and system design. What follows are excerpts of that discussion. SE: How do you see the market and use of machine learning shaping up? Devgan: There are three main areas—machine learning inside, machine lear... » read more

Verification As A Flow (Part 3)


Semiconductor Engineering sat down to discuss the transformation of verification from a tool to a flow with Vladislav Palfy, global manager application engineering for OneSpin Solutions; Dave Kelf, chief marketing officer for Breker Verification Systems; Mark Olen, product marketing group manager for Mentor, A Siemens Business; Larry Melling, product management director, System & Verificati... » read more

Verification As A Flow (Part 2)


Semiconductor Engineering sat down to discuss the transformation of verification from a tool to a flow with Vladislav Palfy, global manager application engineering for OneSpin Solutions; Dave Kelf, chief marketing officer for Breker Verification Systems; Mark Olen, product marketing group manager for Mentor, A Siemens Business; Larry Melling, product management director, System & Verificati... » read more

Design Reuse Vs. Abstraction


Chip designers have been constantly searching for a hardware description language abstraction level higher than RTL for a few decades. But not everyone is moving in that direction, and there appear to be enough options available through design reuse to forestall that shift for many chipmakers. Pushing to new levels of abstraction is frequent topic of discussion in the design world, particula... » read more

Verification As A Flow (Part 1)


Semiconductor Engineering sat down to discuss the transformation of verification from a tool to a flow with Vladislav Palfy, global manager application engineering for OneSpin Solutions; Dave Kelf, chief marketing officer for Breker Verification Systems; Mark Olen, product marketing group manager for Mentor, A Siemens Business; Larry Melling, product management director, System & Verificati... » read more

The Darker Side Of Consolidation


Another wave of consolidation is underway in the semiconductor industry, setting the stage for some high-stakes competitive battles over market turf and sowing confusion across the supply chain about continued support throughout a product's projected lifetime. The consolidation comes as chipmakers already are grappling with rising complexity, the loss of a roadmap for future designs as Moore... » read more

Adding NoCs To FPGA SoCs


FPGA SoCs straddle the line between flexibility and performance by combining elements of both FPGAs and ASICs. But as they find a home in more safety- and mission-critical markets, they also are facing some of the same issues as standard SoCs, including the ability to move larger and larger amounts of data quickly throughout an increasingly complex device, and the difficulty in verifying and de... » read more

Searching For A System Abstraction


Without abstraction, advances in semiconductor design would have stalled decades ago and circuits would remain about the same size as analog blocks. No new abstractions have emerged since the 1990s that have found widespread adoption. The slack was taken up by IP and reuse, but IP blocks are becoming larger and more complex. Verification by isolation is no longer a viable strategy at the system... » read more

Formal Abstraction And Coverage


For the past three years, Oski Technology has facilitated a gathering of formal verification experts over dinner to discuss the problems and issues that they face. They discuss techniques they have been attempting with formal verification technologies, along with the results they have been achieving. Semiconductor Engineering was there to record that conversation and to condense it into the ... » read more

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