Xilinx Reduces Risk And Increases Efficiency For IEC61508 And ISO26262 Certified Safety Applications


This white paper introduces key dependability aspects for industrial and automotive customers who are designing and developing programmable electronic equipment for safety applications using Xilinx FPGA and SoC devices. The main focus of this white paper is to explain how to create solutions with highly integrated, high-performance certifiable systems that target IEC 61508 / ISO 26262 norms. Th... » read more

Computational Software


Electronics technology is evolving rapidly, becoming pervasive in our lives. There are more smart phones in use than there are people on earth, driver assistance is now common in automobiles, commercial airplanes have increasingly sophisticated infotainment, and wearable health monitors exist for a plethora of missions. Every device is generating and communicating massive amounts of data, inclu... » read more

The Growing Market For Specialized Artificial Intelligence IP In SoCs


Over the past decade, designers have developed silicon technologies that run advanced deep learning mathematics fast enough to explore and implement artificial intelligence (AI) applications such as object identification, voice and facial recognition, and more. Machine vision applications, which are now often more accurate than a human, are one of the key functions driving new system-on-chip (S... » read more

A Better Path From Simulink To RTL With Catapult HLS


Design teams working on ASIC or FPGA projects often start with algorithm exploration using MATLAB in order to prove out the mathematical behavior of the functional blocks at a high level of abstraction. MATLAB as a high-level programming language doesn’t support hardware architecture modeling, so many teams use the Simulink environment for performing model-based, multi-domain simulation of th... » read more

RISC-V Custom Instruction Flow Application Note


A RISC-V processor has several defined decode spaces, for example custom0, custom1 etc. into which new custom instructions can be added. OVP Fast processor models can be extended without modification to the pre-compiled and verified base processor model source code using one or more extension libraries. An extension library can be loaded as part of a virtual platform definition in addition to t... » read more

HDL Simulation Acceleration Solution For Microchip FPGA Designs


Mission-critical FPGA designs for space and radar applications continue to increase in complexity, such that they require a comprehensive and robust verification environment. There are hardware-in-the-loop solutions in the market that utilize FPGA boards, but when it comes to establishing functional coverage and debugging the custom logic, users would typically need to go back to HDL simulation... » read more

A Study Of Wiggling AA Modeling And Its Impact On Device Performance In Advanced DRAM


In this paper, a wiggling active area (fin) in an advanced 1x DRAM process was analyzed and modeled using the pattern-dependent etch simulation capabilities of the SEMulator3D semiconductor modeling software. Nonuniformity in sidewall passivation caused by hard mask pattern density loading was identified as the root cause of the wiggling profile. The calibrated model mimicked these phenomena, g... » read more

FinFETs Give Way To Gate-All-Around


When they were first commercialized at the 22 nm node, finFETs represented a revolutionary change to the way we build transistors, the tiny switches in the “brains” of a chip. As compared to prior planar transistors, the fin, contacted on three sides by the gate, provides much better control of the channel formed within the fin. But, finFETs are already reaching the end of their utility as... » read more

Challenges And Approaches To Developing Automotive Grade 1/0 FCBGA Package Capability


Automotive Grade 1 and 0 package requirements, defined by Automotive Electronics Council (AEC) Document AEC-100, require more severe temperature cycling and high temperature storage conditions to meet harsh automotive field requirements, such as a maximum 150°C device operating temperature, 15-year reliability and zero-defect quality level. Moreover, increased integration of device functionali... » read more

Yield Enhancement Technology: Efforts To Suppress Nanosized Particles In Semiconductor Production Equipment


The currently dominant semiconductor process size is in the range between a few and a few dozen nanometers. That means if a nanosized particle smaller than a virus (hereinafter simply “particle”) is present on a silicon substrate, it could cause a defect in the semiconductor device, lowering the production yield (i.e., the percentage of good chips produced in a manufacturing process). Preve... » read more

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