Universal Verification Methodology Running Out Of Steam


For the past decade or so, the Universal Verification Methodology (UVM) has been the de facto verification methodology supported by the entire EDA industry. But as chips become more heterogeneous, more complex, and significantly larger, UVM is running out of steam. Consensus is building that some fundamental changes are required, moving tools up a level of abstraction and making them more ag... » read more

Open-Source Verification


Ask different people what open-source verification means and you will get a host of different answers. They range from the verification of open-source hardware, to providing an open-source verification infrastructure, to providing open-source stream generators or reference models, to open-source simulators and formal verification engines. Verification is about reducing risk. "Verification is... » read more

Blog Review: July 29


Rambus' Scott Best digs into low-cost attacks against security chips that are often used to gauge how resistant and well-designed they are and defensive countermeasures that can be taken. Mentor's Colin Walls urges embedded developers to put a priority on writing clear, maintainable code and considers when using a higher level language like C++ may be helpful. Synopsys' Scott Knowlton fin... » read more

Machine Learning — Everywhere: Enabling Self-Optimizing Design Platforms


Machine-learning offers opportunities to enable self-optimizing design tools. Very much like self-driving cars that observe real-world interactions to improve their responses in different (local) driving conditions, AI-enhanced tools are able to learn and improve in (local) design environments after deployment. These new, ML-driven capabilities can be embedded in different design engines, gi... » read more

Memory Access In AI Systems


Memory access is a key consideration in AI system design. Ron Lowman, strategic marketing manager for IP at Synopsys, talks about how memory affects overall power consumption, why partitioning of on-chip and off-chip is so critical to performance and power, and how this changes from the cloud to the edge. » read more

Week In Review: Design, Low Power


Perforce Software acquired Methodics. Founded in 2006 and based in San Francisco, Methodics' IP lifecycle management and traceability software will join Perforce's larger portfolio of DevOps software that includes version control, Agile planning, and static code analysis. The two companies have had a strategic partnership in place with customers using software from both companies. Terms of the ... » read more

Week In Review: Auto, Security, Pervasive Computing


GPU maker Nvidia may be interested in a purchasing Arm, Bloomberg reports, if current owner Softbank, the Japanese investment group run by billionaire Masayoshi Son, is even selling the company. Softbank may have approached Apple to gauge interest, but Apple reportedly said no. The British-based Arm’s instruction set architecture IP dominates the mobile market, especially with Apple is switch... » read more

EDA On Board With New Package Options


A groundswell of activity around multi-die integration and advanced packaging is pushing EDA companies to develop integration strategies that speed up time to sign-off, increase confidence that a design will work as expected, while still leaving enough room for highly customized solutions. Challenges range from how to architect a design, how to explore the best options and configurations, ho... » read more

Blog Review: July 22


In a video, Synopsys Chairman and co-CEO Aart de Geus discusses AI's computational wants, how 3DIC technology can infuse vitality into Moore’s Law and drive innovation for the semiconductor industry. Cadence's Paul McLellan looks back at the initial rise of digital cameras, the swift decline of the point-and-shoot as smartphones took over, and the development of increasingly complex CMOS i... » read more

3 Types Of AI Hardware


As AI chips become more pervasive, three primary approaches are moving to the forefront. Bradley Geden, director of product marketing at Synopsys, looks at how to take advantage of repeatability, what the different flavors look like, the difference between flat and hierarchical design, and what impact black-box arrays have on programmability. » read more

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