Blog Review: Aug. 6


Mentor’s Colin Walls takes a look at bad behavior—the undefined kind that you get from doing C programming wrong and adding too much complexity up front. Cadence’s Brian Fuller interviews his colleague about what engineers need to know in regards to finFETs, advanced nodes and parasitic extraction. Short answer: Plenty. Synopsys’ Mick Posner is building FPGA prototype boards and... » read more

ARM and Qualcomm: Enabling The Next Mobile Computing Revolution With Highly Integrated ARMv8-A Based SoCs


This joint white paper by ARM and Qualcomm examines the forces behind the recent mobile computing revolution and what will be required for companies to succeed in future evolutions of mobile computing. This paper includes how the next generation of the ARM® architecture, ARMv8-A, will enable the next mobile revolution based around the ARM AArch64 64-bit instruction set while providing full sup... » read more

Designing For Security


Some level of security is required in SoC today, whether it is in hardware, software or — most commonly — both. Of course, there is a price to pay from a power and performance perspective, but thankfully just a small one in most cases. The explosion of consumer devices has driven the need for increased security features in smart cards, smart phones, personal computers, home networks, and... » read more

Blog Review: July 30


Mentor’s Colin Walls looks at a free collaborative online tool called codepad, which can be used for compiling, interpreting and executing code quickly. Free is good—sometimes. Cadence’s Brian Fuller followed a recent panel on high-speed, cross-fabric interface design, which focused on why designers need to consider chip, package and board to ensure signal and power integrity. So what... » read more

New Winners And Losers


During DAC 2013, Robert Colwell of DARPA said he was attempting to prepare the U.S. Dept. of Defense for what he believes is the cataclysm caused by the end of [getkc id="74" comment="Moore's Law"]. He asked the question, “What happens when we don’t have a new technology that doubles the number of transistors every couple of years?” Colwell believes that power is the primary reason why... » read more

Blog Review: July 23


Mentor’s John Day says that within the decade you will be able to contact a real person from your car. Hopefully that doesn't mean marketing people will be able to contact you while you’re stuck in traffic. Cadence’s Brian Fuller says the future of EDA in the automotive market isn’t just about chips. Think security, software and cost reduction. It’s not just SoCs that are going ... » read more

Week 6: Still In Wow-Land


While the conflicts around the world are overshadowing my complete euphoria, I have to admit that I’m still in Fussball wow-land right now. Germany won the World Cup! What an amazing goal from youngster Mario Goetze! Here is what the 22-year-old forward from Bayern-Muenchen had to say after the game: “Andre [Schurrle] put in a superb ball and I was able to control it on my chest, then someh... » read more

The Week In Review: Design


Tools Cadence unveiled two new tools. The first is a rapid prototyping platform that the company claims will shorten bring-up time by 70%, with 4X improvements in capacity, with IEEE 1801 support for low-power verification through its emulation platform. The second is a single and multi-corner custom/analog extraction tool, which it claims will improve performance by 5X. The tool has been cert... » read more

Blog Review: July 16


Mentor’s Scott Salzwedel describes a conversation that could very well happen in the future and it raises an interesting idea. As medical electronics proliferate, will emergency medical teams need to include out systems engineers? Cadence’s Brian Fuller has a summer engineering project that resembles the Bridge Over the River Kwai. He should win an Oscar for this one. Ansys’ Bill ... » read more

The Week In Review: Design


M&A CEVA bought RivieraWaves, which makes IP for WiFi and Bluetooth connectivity. CEVA said the deal will boost its market to 35 billion connected devices within six years. The two companies have been collaborating in the WiFi market for the past couple of years. Total cost of the deal is $19 million. Mentor Graphics acquired XS Embedded GmbH, a German-based developer of automotive-read... » read more

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