Power Is Now Every Engineer’s Concern


Every semiconductor engineer by this point recognizes the need to reduce power inside of SoCs and software. What they don't always see, though, is the chain of events those efforts are beginning to set off—unpredictable, difficult to model, and altogether more difficult to contain. There is no doubt that more functionality on mobile devices requires new ways of designing SoCs, including re... » read more

An Architectural Choice Overdue For Change


The past appears to be a lot simpler than the present and when we look into the future, the right decisions often look highly uncertain. This is the value of hindsight, but also includes the notion that the winner gets to write history. What semiconductors look like today could have been very different if different decisions had been made 20 years ago. What if the industry had adopted a paralle... » read more

Electronic System Design In 2015: Busting Through Bottlenecks


It’s December, and that means it’s time to review what just happened in electronics design in the hopes that it will help light a path into the New Year. To simplify a year’s work in a global, sophisticated, ever-changing industry, you could say 2014 hinged on to two main tipping points: The marriage of EDA and IP was consummated. The road to the future forked. Let’s look at #1... » read more

Real-Time Trace: A Better Way To Debug Embedded Applications


Firmware and application software development is often the critical path for many embedded designs. Problems that appear in the late phases of the development can be extremely difficult to track down and debug, thus putting project schedules at risk. Traditional debug techniques cannot always help to localize the issue. This white paper shows the benefits of debugging with ‘real-time trace’... » read more

Hybrid Verification: The Only Way Forward


Semiconductor Engineering sat down to discuss the state of the industry for [getkc id="10" kc_name=" functional verification"]. The inability of RTL [getkc id="11" kc_name="simulation"] to keep up with verification needs is causing rapid change in the industry. Taking part in the discussion are Harry Foster, chief scientist at [getentity id="22017" e_name="Mentor Graphics"]; Janick Bergeron, fe... » read more

The Week In Review: Design/IoT


IoT The first test drive to showcase intelligent traffic was held in Europe this week. NXP, Siemens, Honda, Cohda Wireless, TÜV Süd, and Automobile Clubs AvD and ANWB are all working within the Intelligent Transport Systems Corridor that runs between Austria, German and the Netherlands. IP Open-Silicon rolled out memory controller IP for the Hybrid Memory Cube 2.0 standard. The 3D stacke... » read more

The Internet Of Cores


Ever since the birth of the third-party [getkc id="43" comment="IP"] market, there has been a desire for plug-and-play compatibility between cores. Part of the value proposition of reuse is that a block has been used before, and has been verified and validated by having been implemented in silicon. By re-using the core, many of these tasks no longer land on the [getkc id="81" kc_name="SoC"] dev... » read more

An Inside Look At The GlobalFoundries-IBM Deal


GlobalFoundries' proposed acquisition of IBM Microelectronics is the kind of deal that will have business schools talking for many years to come—a gargantuan combination of expertise and technology, built on the back of high-profile business successes and failures, long-running legal struggles and global politics—with far-reaching implications for all parts of the semiconductor supply chain... » read more

IP Design Essentials For Power Integrity


Smart connectivity is the new mantra of today – the ability to connect to anything, anywhere and at any time. With such technology enablement, low power is not a choice but an expectation. Whether it is a connected device, or a system that is part of the infrastructure, they are driven to integrate various functionality such as high speed computing, high-speed memory, memory interfaces, radio... » read more

Automated Assertion-Based Verification Methodologies For IP And SoC Development


The rapid growth in complexity and size of modern System on Chip devices (SoCs), along with the expense of developing these ICs, has driven the need for design reusability. Today, SoC designs are typically built as a collection of individual IP (Intellectual Property) blocks stitched together with glue logic. These IP can be sourced from multiple design teams, including many 3rd-party teams. So... » read more

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