Debug Becomes A Bigger Problem


The EDA industry has invested enormous amounts of time and energy on the verification process, including new languages, new tools, new class libraries, new methodologies. But the one part of the cycle that defines that type of automation is debug. Development teams are spending half of their time in the debug process and the problem is growing. Part of the reason is that design and debug are... » read more

Fallout From Scaling


By Ed Sperling & Ann Steffora Mutschler Semiconductor scaling is becoming much more difficult and expensive at each new node, creating sharp divisions about what path to take next for which markets and applications. What used to be confined to one or two clear choices is now turning into a menu of items and possibilities, often with no clear guarantees for a successful outcome. Views ... » read more

Using Agile Methods For Hardware


[getkc id="182" kc_name=agile development"] methodology for software is getting a much closer look by hardware teams these days, because what used to work in SoC design and verification isn't working nearly as well with rising complexity. Development processes need to be constantly evolved to determine how to be more productive, deliver higher quality, cut costs in development, and how to g... » read more

Are Chips Getting More Reliable?


Reliability is emerging as a key metric in the semiconductor industry, alongside of power, performance and cost, but it also is becoming harder to measure and increasingly difficult to achieve. Most large semiconductor companies look at reliability in connection with consumer devices that last several years before they are replaced, but a big push into automotive, medical and industrial elec... » read more

Debug: Last Bastion Of Automation


There have been a number of times when anecdotal evidence became folk law and then over time, the effort was put in to find out whether there was any truth in it. Perhaps the most famous case is the statement that verification consumes 70% of development time and resources. For years this “fact” was used in almost every verification presentation and yet nobody knew where the number had come... » read more

CEO Outlook: 2016


Semiconductor Engineering talked with 10 CEOs from all sides of the Semiconductor Industry for a high-level view of what to expect this year—good and bad. What follows are excerpts of those conversations, which were compiled over the past month. Scott McGregor, president and CEO of Broadcom "We're going to see more M&A. In the past, you only did deals that made sense strategically or ... » read more

Blog Review: Dec. 30


It's been a quiet week on the blog front. If you're looking for a bit of downtime while you enjoy the New Year, we present thoughts on what's happened this year and what may be to come from last week's System-Level Design newsletter: Editor in Chief Ed Sperling finds acquisitions and the leading edge of design defined 2015, but other changes are ahead. Technology Editor Brian Bailey obser... » read more

The Beginning


We all want our creations to transcend time. Our products, our designs—even our specifications. Specifications are more than just ideas or collections of requirements or static collections of implementation details. They live inside many chips and many designs, and the more flexible and portable they are, the longer they remain relevant. End devices may be replaced relatively quickly, but ... » read more

Reflections On 2015


It is easy to make predictions, but few people can make them with any degree of accuracy. Most of the time, those predictions are forgotten by the end of the year and there is no one to do a tally of who holds more credibility for next year. Not so with SemiEngineering. We like to hold people's feet to the fire, but while the Pants-On-Fire meter may be applicable to politicians, we like to thin... » read more

Consolidation’s Aftermath


The recent spate of industry consolidation continues to have repercussions across the semiconductor industry. Some of those effects will subside once the deals are either approved or nixed by regulatory agencies. Others will raise questions for months or years to come. Consolidation is not a new trend in the semiconductor industry, but the pace and size of the acquisitions in the past year a... » read more

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