New Directions For EDA


DAC is over and everyone is asking – what was the theme this year? It is sometimes difficult to make such a determination because quite often the theme has been there for some time, but suddenly appears more obvious than it did in the past. Some years it is a new product or class of products. The theme also can remain hidden, or disguised. As an example, people have been talking about the ... » read more

Analog’s Day Of Reckoning


The numbers being touted by the semiconductor industry for IoT edge devices are staggering. How they are going to be used, who will make them, or indeed who will make money from them are much less certain. The industry seems to be clear about the content of these devices. A small processor, some flash memory or possibly even some of the new memory technologies that are coming along, a radio ... » read more

IP Integration Challenges Increase


Semiconductor Engineering sat down with Chris Rowen, CTO of [getentity id="22032" e_name="Cadence"]'s IP group; Rob Aitken, an [getentity id="22186" comment="ARM"] fellow; Patrick Soheili, vice president of product management and corporate development at [getentity id="22242" e_name="eSilicon"]; Navraj Nandra, senior director of marketing for DesignWare analog and mixed-signal IP at [getentity ... » read more

Semiconductor R&D Crisis?


Research and development is a sometimes forgotten but critical element in the semiconductor industry. The delicate R&D ecosystem enables many of the key breakthroughs in the business. But there could be a troubling trend, if not a crisis, brewing on two fronts in the R&D arena. On one front, R&D costs for semiconductor technologies are escalating at each node. Higher R&D costs are not only ... » read more

Can Copper Revolutionize Interconnects Again?


Electromigration and resistivity present serious obstacles to interconnect scaling, as previously discussed. In a copper damascene process, grain growth is constrained by the narrow trenches into which copper is deposited. As the grain size approaches the mean free path of electrons in copper, electron scattering at sidewalls and grain boundaries increases and resistivity jumps. Meanwhile, incr... » read more

Full Coverage Or Full Monty?


Without adequate coverage metrics and tools, verification engineers would never be able to answer the proverbial question: are we done yet? But a lot has changed in the design flow since the existing set of metrics was defined. Does it still ensure that the right things get verified, that time is not wasted on things deemed unimportant or a duplication of effort, and can it handle today’s hie... » read more

Executive Insight: Charles Janac


SE: One of the big stories these days is consolidation. What are you seeing on your side? Janac: There are about 230 companies doing SoCs right now. Maybe 150 should be doing that. As the game gets more expensive and more difficult, some of the companies that don't have volume may have to do something else. Consolidation is part of that. But you're also going to see movement toward platforms... » read more

Security Risk Escalating In 2015


Never has there been a more committed effort for malevolent entities to try to leak data, damage infrastructures, and wreak havoc on data essential to our lives. And never has there been a more opportunistic time for the security industry to put their best effort forward and answer the malfeasance challenge. So what is the current state of cyber security? "Unfortunately, there isn’t a l... » read more

What’s Really Inside?


Is it just paranoia, or do devices ranging from industrial controls to military hardware really contain malicious code, Trojan Horses, and remotely triggered back doors? The answer is "maybe not" if you're an optimist, and "maybe" if you're a pessimist, but no one really knows for sure. And that's what really worries security experts, particularly as more devices are connected to other devices.... » read more

Smart Grids, Smart Cities


What makes today’s power grid “intelligent” is the modernization of the technologies that both provide and support power distribution. These technologies use intelligent data analysis and communications, via a two-way, automated communications network to analyze what is going on within the grid. Information about the activities of both suppliers and consumers is collected, analyzed, an... » read more

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