Toward Democratized IC Design And Customized Computing


Integrated circuit (IC) design is often considered a “black art,” restricted to only those with advanced degrees or years of training in electrical engineering. Given that the semiconductor industry is struggling to expand its workforce, IC design must be rendered more accessible. The benefit of customized computing General-purpose computers are widely used, but their performance improv... » read more

Where Imperfections Lead To Opportunity


By Evelyn Hu It is natural to hold a bias that assumes that the highest-quality devices are those formed from the most perfect materials (crystalline, well-ordered, stoichiometric). Therefore, it is ironic, and perhaps counterintuitive, that particular kinds of defects, such as vacancies (missing atoms) in semiconductor materials, can form the building blocks of a new quantum information tec... » read more

It’s Eternal Spring For AI


The field of Artificial Intelligence (AI) has had many ups and downs largely due to unrealistic expectations created by everyone involved including researchers, sponsors, developers, and even consumers. The “reemergence” of AI has lot to do with recent developments in supporting technologies and fields such as sensors, computing at macro and micro scales, communication networks and progre... » read more

IoT Security Requirements Ramping


By Haydn Povey The security issues associated with the Internet of Things are already well known. Whether it's bots infecting home networks, the destruction of industrial systems, or the ability to take remote control of automobiles, the horror stories are starting to mount like bodies in a bad movie. While legislating for security is never easy, and typically has proven imperfect, there is... » read more

The CEO Outlook Returns


One of the more popular events hosted by the EDA Consortium (EDAC, to those in the know) was the CEO Forecast held at the start of each year. It was phased out several years ago for a number of reasons, including logistics and scheduling. Attendance was never one of them. As I took the reins of EDAC two years ago, I repeatedly heard how much that evening was missed. Members and non-members h... » read more

Happy 25th Birthday, HAL!


“Good afternoon, gentlemen. I am a HAL 9000 computer. I became operational at the H. A. L. plant in Urbana, Illinois on the 12th of January, 1992.”—Stanley Kubrick and Arthur C. Clarke, 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968). Nearly a half-century ago, Arthur C. Clarke and Stanley Kubrick introduced us to cinema’s most compelling example of artificial intelligence: the HAL 9000, a heuristicall... » read more

Pivot Is The New Watchword For Design Automation


Design Automation has been a crucial part of the semiconductor industry for more than 30 years. Without it, keeping up with Moore’s Law would have been impossible. The Design Automation industry accepted the high-risk responsibility for developing the sophisticated software and algorithms at the pace necessary to corral Moore’s Law. In a sense, Design Automation had its own Moore’s la... » read more

A Winning Formula


It may be fitting that DVCon will be held the same week as Super Tuesday this year, the day when the greatest number of states in the U.S. hold primary elections. Big dollar expenditures and return on investment (ROI) strategies are part of today’s political landscape, as they are with chip design and verification. Missing a delivery window for an electronics device can cost 25% or more o... » read more

SEO: Search Engine Optimization


Semiconductor marketing strategies always rely on branding and name recognition to increase sales. Yes, personal relationships are important, but for the most part a company's reputation and brand play an integral part of an overall marketing strategy for most semiconductor companies. Today, managing that name recognition and the overall brand has moved to the Web. After all, pretty much any... » read more