Halloween Is Going Mobile


With the end of October around the corner, my children are frantically thinking about what they want to dress up as for Halloween. It is interesting that both of them chose a costume that has something to do with a mobile video game. My daughter will be dressing up as a red angry bird while my son wants to go as a wizard, where he is using clash of clans as the example of what a wizard should l... » read more

Blog Review: Oct. 23


It was a good week for good questions. Cadence’s Brian Fuller asks what applications dream about—or rather what’s their potential. In the context of technology development, that’s worth pondering. Mentor’s Mike Jensen asks what will you be remembered for. There are a couple other important addendums to that, such as how long you will be remembered. And perhaps even more important, ... » read more

Tackling Verification Challenges With Interconnect Validation Tool


An interconnect, also referred to as a bus matrix or fabric, serves as the communication hub of multiple intellectual property (IP) cores inside a system on chip (SoC). As the capacity of today’s SoCs continues to increase dramatically, interconnect verification complexity also grows, considering the master/slave numbers, various protocols, different kinds of transactions, and multi-layered t... » read more

Blog Review: Oct. 16


Cadence’s Richard Goering follows Si2’s move into SPICE modeling following the acquisition of the Compact Model Council. Combining standards groups is a growing trend these days. Mentor’s Colin Walls points to the demise of reset buttons. You can always trip a circuit breaker, and usually turn off a device by pulling out the battery, but a reset button is simpler. Where did they go? ... » read more

The Week In Review: Oct. 11


By Mark LaPedus & Ed Sperling Demand is running high for DRAMs, thanks to last month’s fab fire at Hynix’ China plant. “The impact from Hynix' fab fire seems to be far more extensive than we had originally thought. We now think the factory is most likely up at the earliest by May/June 2014, which certainly provides robust pricing support for DRAM. Hynix is in the process of convertin... » read more

The Brave New World Of FinFETs


SoCs using 16nm and 14nm finFETs are expected to begin rolling out next year using a 20nm back-end-of-line process. While the initial performance and power numbers are looking very promising, the challenges of designing and building these complex chips are daunting—and there are more problems on the way. First, the good news. Initial results from foundries show a 150% improvement in perfor... » read more

Blog Review: Oct. 9


By Ed Sperling Mentor’s Simon Favre raises an interesting question: Why are 450mm wafers and EUV lithography related? The answer may surprise you. In his second broadcast, Cadence’s Brian Fuller interviews Gary Smith about where EDA will grow, why industry consolidation is a myth and why there is a dearth of reliable information about the electronics industry. Synopsys’ Mick Posner... » read more

Blog Review: Oct. 3


Cadence’s Brian Fuller rolls out a twice-monthly TV program called “Unhinged,” which he bills as a cross between The Daily Show, Letterman and ESPN. The intro is a classic. Who needs coffee? Synopsys’ Karen Bartleson interviews Bob Metcalfe, co-inventor of Ethernet, creator of Metcalfe’s Law—which has withstood the test of time quite well—on why Ethernet still really important.... » read more

Rethinking The Data Center


Ever since the introduction of the PC, the biggest challenge in computing has been more about getting software to take advantage of multiple processors or cores than getting the chips to run faster. Ironically, this issue was solved decades ago inside of data centers. Enterprise applications, built on databases, have always been relatively easy to parse so that individual pieces can be run sepa... » read more

New Architectures Redefining The Data Center


By Ed Sperling The cost of powering and cooling data centers, coupled with a better understanding of how enterprise-level applications can utilize hardware more effectively, are spawning a new wave of changes inside of data centers. Data centers are always evolving, but in this sector that evolution is deliberate and sometimes painstakingly slow. In fact, each major shift tends to last a de... » read more

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