The Week In Review: Design/IoT


An Intel study conducted by TNS showed that tech gadgets topped the holiday gift list this year, including tablets, laptops and smart phones. The study also found that 60% of Americans peeked at their holiday gifts as kids, and 25% still look. Deals Mentor Graphics added Macnica Americas as a distributor for its simulator, functional verification and PCB simulation and analysis tools. So... » read more

Blog Review: Nov. 12


ARM's Eoin McCann provides a primer to software-defined networking, which uses a higher level of abstraction to create a centralized controller. This is a new twist on networking—with a bit of deja vu thrown in. Mentor's Matthew Ballance points to a perfect storm for verification—shrinking features, more layers and more embedded processors. He has some tips for how to deal with all of t... » read more

Are Models Holding Back New Methodologies?


Semiconductor Engineering sat down to discuss the state of the industry for [getkc id="101" kc_name="modeling"] at abstractions above [getkc id="49" kc_name="RTL"], a factor which has delayed adoption of [getkc id="104" kn_name="virtual prototypes"] and the proliferation of system-level design and hardware/software codesign. Taking part in the discussion were Frank Schirrmeister, group director... » read more

What’s Working For Power Verification


Getting power verification right — or at least good enough — is the source of frustration for many design teams. Add to this the fact that there is no one right way to accomplish it just compounds the challenge. Fortunately, there are a number of options that are working to varying degrees, starting with static verification, according to Bernard Murphy, CTO of Atrenta. “Static verifica... » read more

Designing For Energy Efficiency


Swiss watchmakers have nothing to worry about for the moment. As top-name companies crowd into the wearable market with full-featured watches, limits on battery life and frequent charges undoubtedly will limit their popularity. Smart watches look cool or clunky, depending upon your perspective, but none of them lasts long enough between charges to be a serious market contender. That's certai... » read more

Are More Processor Cores Better?


Up until the early 2000s, each generation of processor was faster, used more exotic architectures, had deeper pipelines, used more transistors, ran at higher clock frequencies and consumed more power. In fact power was rising faster than performance and led to the extrapolation that within a few generations, processors would run as hot as nuclear reactors. Something had to change, and that c... » read more

Another Tool In The Bag


Clocks can account for 25% to 40% of total dynamic power consumption in a complex chip, so when looking for areas to reduce power, the clock tree network is a good place to start. Structurally, it is certainly possible to have single-bit flip flops with a clock that connects to every one of the flip flops, and the power in general is proportional to the number of buffers in the clock tree on... » read more

The Week In Review: Design/IoT


Chips NXP rolled out what it claims are the most power-efficient microcontrollers for always-on applications. The minimum draw is 3 microamps for continuous sensor listening. Tools Mentor Graphics beefed up its CFD tool, adding thermo-fluid analysis simulation capabilities for automotive, aerospace and industrial applications. Included is support for FMI, an open-source environment that al... » read more

Virtual Prototyping Takes Off


Semiconductor Engineering sat down with Barry Spotts, senior core competency FAE for fabric and tools at [getentity id="22186" comment="ARM"]; Vasan Karighattam, senior director of architecture for SoC and SSW engineering at [getentity id="22664" e_name="Open-Silicon"]; Tom De Schutter, senior product marketing manager for Virtualizer Solutions at [getentity id="22035" e_name="Synopsys"]; Larry... » read more

Keeping Up With The Productivity Challenge


Until recently, EDA software rode the coattails of increasing processor performance as part of its drive to continue providing faster and more powerful development software to the people designing, among other things, the next generation of faster processors. It was a fortuitous ring. Around the turn of the century, with the migration to multi-core computing systems, all of that changed. In ord... » read more

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