SoC Integration Headaches Grow


As the number of IP blocks grows, so do the headaches of integrating the various pieces and making sure they perform as planned within a prescribed power envelope. This is easier said than done, particularly at the most advanced process nodes. There are more blocks, more power domains, more states and use-model dependencies, and there is much more contention for memories. There are physical ... » read more

The Old Two-Step Just Doesn’t Have That Swing


Power analysis has quickly become equally as important as functional verification for today's power-hungry SoCs. Yet, until now, it was not possible to fully analyze dynamic power in very large SoCs running embedded software. That day has finally arrived with new emulation platform software that overcomes the intrinsic shortcomings of the current two-step power estimation tools. The current ... » read more

Confidence Is The New Verification


Everywhere around us the devices we use are getting connected to each other digitally. New devices that sense and quantify the parameters we need to make decisions are also being created. It is estimated that 26 billion connected devices will be installed by 2020, or roughly four per person on the planet! The whole purpose of the connected device is to observe/report and control remotely, of... » read more

Mentor, Cadence Join Forces


Mentor Graphics and Cadence have agreed to create a single binary interface for their respective simulation and emulation platforms, allowing debug tools from one vendor to run on the other's platforms. The two have invited [getentity id="22035" e_name="Synopsys"] to join their initiative, as well. So far, there is no decision. The move proposes a single API for both [getentity id="22032"... » read more

Power Usage Shift Leads To Methodology Shift


Veloce offers a unique and customized flow for SoC power exploration and analysis. Veloce Power Application is enabling a methodology shift in the way power measurements are done to address the new requirements due to usage shift. Chip designers do not need to rely on functional test benches and extrapolation techniques to come up with power number. The new flow enables booting OS, running live... » read more

Full Coverage Or Full Monty?


Without adequate coverage metrics and tools, verification engineers would never be able to answer the proverbial question: are we done yet? But a lot has changed in the design flow since the existing set of metrics was defined. Does it still ensure that the right things get verified, that time is not wasted on things deemed unimportant or a duplication of effort, and can it handle today’s hie... » read more

Full Coverage Or Full Monty


Without adequate coverage metrics and tools, verification engineers would never be able to answer the proverbial question: Are we done yet? But a lot has changed in the design flow since the existing set of metrics was defined. Does it still ensure that the right things get verified, that time is not wasted on things deemed unimportant or a duplication of effort, and can it handle today’s hie... » read more

Toward Smarter Design Automation


In less than two weeks, the EDA industry will convene for its biggest conference of the year, the Design Automation Conference, again in San Francisco. Last year, I “came clean” with a post called “Confessions Of An ESL-Aholic,” pointing out that beyond high-level synthesis, a significant shift towards a more abstract design description than RTL has not yet happened and that a lot of th... » read more

Tech Talk: Power Tools


At 200 million gates, using standard tools for power will add weeks to the semiconductor design process. Vijay Chobisa, product marketing manager at Mentor Graphics, talks with Semiconductor Engineering about where the problems are and how to solve them. [youtube vid=w7yEdtaIb9A] » read more

Automating Root-Cause Analysis To Reduce Time To Find Bugs by Up To 50%


If you’re spending more than 50% of your verification effort in debug, you’re not alone. For many design, verification, and embedded software engineers as well as engineers verifying complex standard protocols, debug is the primary bottleneck in verification. Most debug today is completed using the traditional methodology of print statements paired with waveforms. Given that today’s desig... » read more

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