When Verification Leads

By Brian Bailey - 25 Apr, 2019 - Comments: 0

Semiconductor Engineering sat down to discuss the implications of having an executable specification that drives verification with Hagai Arbel, CEO for VTool; Adnan Hamid, CEO for Breker Verification; Mark Olen, product marketing manager for Mentor, a Siemens Business; Jim Hogan, managing partner of Vista Ventures; Sharon Rosenberg, senior solutions architect for Cadence Design Systems; and Tom... » read more

CDNLive 2019: The Verification Ecosystem Is Growing Stronger And Stronger

By Frank Schirrmeister - 25 Apr, 2019 - Comments: 0

Ecosystems are not only fascinating when it comes to processors like Arm, MIPS, x86, and RISC-V (as I have written before) or for semiconductor technologies like TSMC, GLOBALFOUNDRIES, and Samsung; they are key for success in verification as well. CDNLive Silicon Valley was, again, a great example of the verification ecosystem in action. It showcased the different engines verification tools run... » read more

The Case For Embedded FPGAs Strengthens And Widens

By Brian Bailey - 25 Apr, 2019 - Comments: 2

The embedded FPGA, an IP core integrated into an ASIC or SoC, is winning converts. System architects are starting to see the benefits of eFPGAs, which offer the flexibility of programmable logic without the cost of FPGAs. Programmable logic is especially appealing for accelerating machine learning applications that need frequent updates. An eFPGA can provide some architects the cover they ne... » read more

The Precision Knob

By Ed Sperling - 18 Apr, 2019 - Comments: 0

Precision used to be a goal, but increasingly it is being used as a tool. This is true for processing and algorithms, where less precision can greatly improve both performance and battery life. And it is true in manufacturing, where more precision can help minimize the growing impact of variation. Moreover, being able to dial precision up or down can help engineers see the impact on a system... » read more

EDA, IP Revenue Down

By Ed Sperling - 15 Apr, 2019 - Comments: 0

EDA and IP revenue dropped 3.1% in Q4 2018 to $2.570 billion, versus $2.652 billion in the same period in 2017, ending a streak of 11 consecutive positive quarters of growth, according to the statistics released today by the Electronic System Design (ESD) Alliance. One quarter doesn't indicate a trend, but it certainly gets everyone's attention after nearly three years of positive news. Now ... » read more

The Long And Detailed Road To Automotive Compliance

By Ann Mutschler - 04 Apr, 2019 - Comments: 0

Compliance with automotive safety requirements is slowing down both innovation and participation by a flurry of startups as the whole ecosystem struggles to bring autonomous vehicles to reality. This is particularly onerous for chipmakers, which face a high bar for IC integrity and reliability. They must meet specifications and be free of design errors. Improper behavior in corner-case s... » read more

Fibonacci And Honey Bees Have Something In Common: A Sweet Spot For Formal

By Sergio Marchese - 28 Mar, 2019 - Comments: 0

Time flies and the OneSpin’s Holiday Puzzle tradition has reached its third year. In December 2016, OneSpin challenged engineers everywhere to solve the Einstein riddle using assertions and a formal verification tool. In December 2017, the challenge was to model the hardest Sudoku in the world using assertions and find a solution with a formal tool. In addition, participants had to prove that... » read more

Using Less Power At The Same Node

By Brian Bailey - 14 Mar, 2019 - Comments: 0

Going to the next node has been the most effective way to reduce power, but that is no longer true or desirable for a growing percentage of the semiconductor industry. So the big question now is how to reduce power while maintaining the same node size. After understanding how the power is used, both chip designers and fabs have techniques available to reduce power consumption. Fabs are makin... » read more

How To Build An Automotive Chip

By Ann Mutschler - 07 Mar, 2019 - Comments: 0

The introduction of advanced electronics into automotive design is causing massive disruption in a supply chain that, until very recently, hummed along like a finely tuned sports car. The rapid push toward autonomous driving has changed everything. This year, Level 3 autonomy will begin hitting the streets, and behind the scenes, work is underway to design SoCs for Level 4. But how these chi... » read more

Embedded FPGA Basics

By Flex Logix - 06 Mar, 2019 - Comments: 0

You do not need know about FPGAs to integrate reconfigurable RTL into your SoC: our software maps your RTL into our EFLX array for you. But if you are curious, read on. FPGAs are field programmable gate arrays. They offer a different kind of programmability from processors. Processors are sequential while FPGAs enable massive parallelism. A processor has one adder, one multiplier—an ... » read more

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Knowledge Centers
Entities, people and technologies explored

Shift Left Is The Tip Of The Iceberg

A transformative change is underway for semiconductor design and EDA. New languages, models, and abstractions will need to be created.

by Brian Bailey

Partitioning In The Chiplet Era

Understanding how chiplets interact under different workloads is critical to ensuring signal integrity and optimal performance in heterogeneous designs.

by Ann Mutschler

3.5D: The Great Compromise

Pros and cons of a middle-ground chiplet assembly that combines 2.5D and 3D-IC.

by Ed Sperling

AI’s Role In Chip Design Widens, Drawing In New Startups

Focus is on letting engineers do much more with the same or fewer resources — and less drudgery.

by Karen Heyman

Key Technologies To Extend EUV To 14 Angstroms

Alongside high-NA EUV will be better-performing photoresists, reduced roughness using passivation and etch, and lateral etching to reduce tip-to-tip dimensions.

by Laura Peters

What Comes After HBM For Chiplets

The standard for high-bandwidth memory limits design freedom at many levels, but that is required for interoperability. What freedoms can be taken from other functions to make chiplets possible?

by Brian Bailey

Memory Fundamentals For Engineers

eBook: Nearly everything you need to know about memory, including detailed explanations of the different types of memory; how and where these are used today; what's changing, which memories are successful and which ones might be in the future; and the limitations of each memory type.

by The SE Staff

Why Small Fab And Assembly Houses Are Thriving

Megafabs churning out the most advanced processors are not the only game in town.

by Bryon Moyer

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