Debug Issues Grow At New Nodes


Debugging and testing chips is becoming more time-consuming, more complicated, and significantly more difficult at advanced nodes as well as in advanced packages. The main problem is that there are so many puzzle pieces, and so many different use cases and demands on those pieces, that it's difficult to keep track of all the changes and potential interactions. Some blocks are "on" sometimes,... » read more

PCIe In High-Performance FPGAs


In today's world, when the entire computing industry is talking about high-performance and high-speed applications using FPGAs, what are the factors that can assure such performance and speed? The value and success of today’s high performance computing applications in the areas of DNA Sequencing, High Frequency Trading (HFT) and Encryption/Decryption are predicated upon how fast data can be t... » read more

Week In Review: Design, Low Power


Aldec expanded the rule-checking capabilities of its ALINT-PRO tool, adding twice as many FSM checks and new graphical representations to aid state exploration. Also included is enhanced setup automation for complex Xilinx Vivado and ISE projects that automatically organizes a workspace to deliver hierarchical and incremental DRC and CDC analysis. Xilinx acquired AI startup DeePhi Technology... » read more

Design Reuse Vs. Abstraction


Chip designers have been constantly searching for a hardware description language abstraction level higher than RTL for a few decades. But not everyone is moving in that direction, and there appear to be enough options available through design reuse to forestall that shift for many chipmakers. Pushing to new levels of abstraction is frequent topic of discussion in the design world, particula... » read more

Adding NoCs To FPGA SoCs


FPGA SoCs straddle the line between flexibility and performance by combining elements of both FPGAs and ASICs. But as they find a home in more safety- and mission-critical markets, they also are facing some of the same issues as standard SoCs, including the ability to move larger and larger amounts of data quickly throughout an increasingly complex device, and the difficulty in verifying and de... » read more

SoC FPGAs And HW/SW Co-Simulation


Heterogeneous System on Chip (SoC) devices like the Xilinx Zynq 7000 and Zynq UltraScale+ MPSoC combine a high-performance processing system (PS) with state-of-the-art programmable logic (PL). This combination allows a system to be architected to provide an optimally balanced single-chip software/hardware solution. However, all too often, the integration between the PS and PL takes place late... » read more

Blog Review: June 6


In a video, Cadence's Marc Greenberg discusses the advantages and trade-offs of HBM2 and GDDR6, two advanced memory interfaces targeted to the high-performance computing market. Synopsys' Ravindra Aneja takes a look at what's needed for AI-focused hardware designs and how formal can help with the necessary data path verification. In a video, Mentor's Colin Walls explains the challenges of... » read more

FPGAs Becoming More SoC-Like


FPGAs are blinged-out rockstars compared to their former selves. No longer just a collection of look-up tables (LUTs) and registers, FPGAs have moved well beyond into now being architectures for system exploration and vehicles for proving a design architecture for future ASICs. This family of devices now includes everything from basic programmable logic all the way up to complex SoC devices.... » read more

Speeding Up High-Frequency Trading


The High-Frequency Trading (HFT) industry has received a lot of attention during the last few years. HFT is all about speed and minimizing latency: the faster you can run trading strategies and algorithms for analyzing minute price changes and executing trade orders, the higher the probability to win over competition. So the competition in this area is very fierce with market players continuous... » read more

The Week In Review: Design


M&A IoT-focused memory chipmaker Adesto Technologies acquired S3 Semiconductors, a provider of mixed-signal and RF ASICs and IP. Based in Ireland, S3 Semiconductors was founded in 1986. S3 Semiconductors will become a business unit of Adesto and will continue to operate under its current model in the $35 million deal. S3 Semiconductor's parent company, S3 Group, will continue as a separate... » read more

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