tag: EDA

Softbank To Buy ARM For $32.34B
By The SE Staff - 18 Jul, 2016 - Comments: 0

By Ed Sperling & Ann Steffora Mutschler Japan's Softbank will acquire ARM for $32.34 billion, according to an agreement made public this morning. The deal has the backing of ARM's board of directors, which unanimously will recommend ARM shareholders approve it, according to a company statement. Under the terms of the deal, Softbank will at least double employee headcount in the United... » read more

Implementation Limits Power Optimization
By Ann Mutschler - 14 Jul, 2016 - Comments: 3

Implementation is still the step that makes or breaks power budgets in chip design, despite improvements in power estimation, power simulations, and an increase in the number of power-related architectural decisions. The reason: All of those decisions must be carried throughout the design flow. “If implementation decides to give up, then it doesn't really matter at the end of the day,” s... » read more

No More Easy IP Money
By Brian Bailey - 14 Jul, 2016 - Comments: 2

The semiconductor intellectual property ([getkc id="43" kc_name="IP"]) industry is two decades old, but questions are still being asked about what's wrong with it and what needs to be fixed. Normally these kinds of issues are reserved for fast-moving, young industries, not one that is the backbone of semiconductors. Design reuse has become an indispensable part of the design of nearly all el... » read more

Abundant Change Ahead
By Brian Bailey - 06 Jul, 2016 - Comments: 1

There is nobody who would question the amazing ride that semiconductors have been on for the past 50 years. It has been described as the longest running exponential that humankind has ever been a part of—and it is not over yet. Still, the future is very likely to be substantially different from the past. It is almost natural for us to see a trend and assume it will continue. There have bee... » read more

EDA, IP Sales Up
By Ed Sperling - 30 Jun, 2016 - Comments: 0

EDA and IP revenue increased 4.5% in Q1, a significant increase given the semiconductor industry was flat last year and that EDA sales dropped 1.9% in Q4 of 2015. Total sales were $1.962 billion, up from $1.877 in Q1 of 2015. The big surprise, though, was Japan, which grew 12%. Japan's semiconductor business has been in a deep slump for several years. "It's been a long time since we've se... » read more

Can Verification Meet In The Middle?
By Brian Bailey - 30 Jun, 2016 - Comments: 0

Since the dawn of time for the EDA industry, the classic V diagram has defined the primary design flow. On the left hand side of the V, the design is progressively refined and partitioned into smaller pieces. At the bottom of the V, verification takes over and as you travel up the right-hand side of the V, verification and integration happens until the entire design has been assembled and valid... » read more

The Road To 5nm
By Ed Sperling - 23 Jun, 2016 - Comments: 1

There is strong likelihood that enough companies will move to 7nm to warrant the investment. How many will move forward to 5nm is far less certain. Part of the reason for this uncertainty is big-company consolidation. There are simply fewer customers left who can afford to build chips at the most advanced nodes. Intel bought Altera. Avago bought Broadcom. NXP bought Freescale. GlobalFoundrie... » read more

Spec-Driven Design
By Ed Sperling - 10 Jun, 2016 - Comments: 0

Anupam Bakshi, CEO of Agnisys, sat down with Semiconductor Engineering to discuss problems in the design flow and what needs to be fixed. What follows are excerpts of that conversation. SE: What are the big problems facing the industry? Bakshi: There is a disconnect from the specification down to the implementation. That's why verification has become so big. Specification down to implemen... » read more

DAC Day One: EDA Through Different Glasses
By Brian Bailey - 06 Jun, 2016 - Comments: 1

DAC is back in Austin after being away for three years. The weather improved for our arrival after the bad thunderstorms of the past couple of weeks. The sun came out and started to heat everything up. With water still pooling around the place, it was somewhat humorous to see a bus pass with the slogan "Think about Austin without water." DAC starts, as it always has in my memory, with a pres... » read more

Cooperation Instead Of Competition
By Bill Neifert - 03 Jun, 2016 - Comments: 0

I spent more than 20 years working in EDA and managed to do so without ever working for one of the big three. Big EDA companies were always the competition. Oh sure, you’d partner with them strategically if you could, but always keeping in mind that little fish swimming with big fish often end up being eaten. That all changed seven months ago when ARM acquired Carbon’s technology and tea... » read more

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