Lab-To-Fab Testing


Test equipment vendors are working on integrating testing and simulation in the lab with testing done later in the fab, setting the stage for what potentially could be the most significant change in semiconductor test in years. If they are successful, this could greatly simplify design for test, which has become increasingly difficult as chips get more complex, denser, and as more heterogene... » read more

Automakers Take On More Responsibility


Chip and EDA companies are scrambling to deal with stiff safety regulations and harsh environmental conditions for automotive chips, but automakers are making big changes of their own to ensure all those components work together as expected. The result is a significant shift of responsibilities of companies in the automotive supply chain. Carmakers traditionally have left verification, valid... » read more

So Many Waivers Hiding Issues


Semiconductor Engineering sat down to discuss problems associated with domain crossings with Alex Gnusin, design verification technologist for Aldec; Pete Hardee, director, product management for Cadence; Joe Hupcey, product manager and verification product technologist for Mentor, a Siemens Business; Sven Beyer, product manager design verification for OneSpin; and Godwin Maben, applications en... » read more

Adding Safety Into Automotive Design


The ISO 26262 spec is a household term for anyone even remotely involved with the automotive industry today. Increasingly, though, it is being used interchangeably with safety-readiness across the entire supply chain. ISO 26262 compliance is a prerequisite for IP and chips used in an increasing number of automotive applications. It applies to systems, software, and to individual products. An... » read more

Making Buildings Smarter


Calling a building “smart” implies that technology is embedded to make that building more efficient, useful, convenient and profitable. The goal is to program efficiency beyond what humans can provide. But “smart” also may imply a healthy dose of marketing hype. No one wants to live in a “dumb building,” but it's difficult to define what makes a building smart. And while much is ... » read more

Anti-Drone Tech Emerges With Drone Growth


The ability of unmanned aerial vehicles to fly legally over fences, walls and property lines is disrupting more than just the few industries that use drones commercially. As the drone market grows, so does the anti-drone market. The market for products that track, trap or break unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) is growing alongside the market for drones, much of it driven by fear that UAVs coul... » read more

Cloud Drives Changes In Network Chip Architectures


Cloud data centers have changed the networking topology and how data moves throughout a large data center, prompting significant changes in the architecture of the chips used to route that data and raising a whole new set of design challenges. Cloud computing has emerged as the fast growing segment of the data center market. In fact, it is expected to grow three-fold in the next few years, a... » read more

RISC-V Inches Toward The Center


RISC-V is pushing further into the mainstream, showing up across a wide swath of designs and garnering support from a long and still-growing list of chipmakers, tools vendors, universities and foundries. In most cases it is being used as a complementary processor than a replacement for something else, but that could change in the future. What makes RISC-V particularly attractive to chipmaker... » read more

Is Cloud Computing Suitable for Chip Design?


Is semiconductor design being left behind in a cloud-dominated world? Finance, CRM, office applications and many other sectors have made the switch to a cloud-based computing environment, but the EDA industry and its users have hardly started the migration. Are EDA needs and concerns that different from everyone else? We are starting to see announcements from EDA companies, but few cheerleaders... » read more

Betting Big On Discontinuity


Wally Rhines, president and CEO of Mentor, a Siemens Business, sat down with Semiconductor Engineering to talk about the booming chip industry, what's driving it, how long it will last and what changes are ahead in EDA and chip architectures. What follows are excerpts of that conversation. SE: The EDA and semiconductor industries are doing well right now. What's driving that growth? Rhine... » read more

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