Performance Still Trumps Power


When it comes to technology, the past was always simpler than the present and the future looks daunting. In part, this is because finding a solution to a problem allows us to discover the next problem. Over time, the previous problem becomes more understood and solutions improve to the point where it is no longer considered a problem. It was a fairly easy choice about how to implement functiona... » read more

Power’s Impact On Hierarchy Modification


RTL restructuring in which the logical hierarchy of a design is modified is usually done to manage complex designs. When power management is added to this task, new challenges crop up. Consider switchable power or voltage domains, which are a common way to manage power is to use switchable power or voltage domains. When implementing this technique, all the logic in such a domain must hang of... » read more

Three Must-Watch Electronics Trends in 2014


It’s halfway through January, and I think we’ve exhausted our “2014 Forecast” posts for the year. Still, it’s helpful to consider what lies ahead when all we have under our belts at this point is CES 2014 (and that event was clearly underwhelming as a technology bellwether). I propose three areas to watch closely in 2014, based on ploughed ground from some excellent industry observ... » read more

Blog Review: Jan. 15


Mentor’s Colin Walls digs into safety-critical sensors for cars, which are essential to the operation of a variety of systems in vehicles. The number of redundant sensors increases proportionate to the risk from failure, something that has been an accepted practice in mil/aero markets for years. Cadence’s Brian Fuller gazes into a crystal ball and concludes that while the semiconductor i... » read more

The Next Big Threat


In just the past year, tens of millions of Target store customers had their customer and credit card records stolen, The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal were hacked, Adobe software had a security breach, Yahoo! was infected with malware, and Snapchat was hit with a bug that exposed user phone numbers. And this was just what was reported in the mainstream media. The threat, it turns o... » read more

The Week In Review: System-Level Design


Cadence won a deal with Fraunhofer, which licensed its MPEG codecs for Tensilica HiFi DSP. (Cadence acquired Tensilica last year.) The AAC codecs combine speech and general-purpose audio into a unified system, which simplifies design because it works at any bit rate. Sonics won a deal with MediaTek, which licensed its NoC technology for an upcoming line of SoCs. MediaTek, based in Taiwan, is... » read more

Experts At The Table: Yield And Reliability Issues With Integrating IP


Semiconductor Engineering sat down to discuss the impact of integrating IP in complex SoCs with Juan Rey, senior director of engineering at Mentor Graphics; Kevin Yee, product marketing director for Cadence’s SoC Realization Group; and Mike Gianfagna, vice president of marketing at eSilicon. What follows are excerpts of that conversation. SE: Do we need to move to subsystems or more restri... » read more

Blog Review: Jan. 8


How do you choose an embedded operating system—and do you even need one? Mentor’s Colin Walls looks at the options, and the reason why there are no simple answers. Cadence’s Richard Goering has evidence that Facebook is gaining in popularity for engineer. He’s not the first person to recognize this shift, but the big unanswered questions are, ‘What’s the average age of those use... » read more

Blog Review: Jan. 2


ARM’s Lori Kate Smith has been scouring the market for cool devices. Her pick: the Epic Giveaway wrist computer for runners. She says the only drawback is the 10-hour battery life, but if you can run that long and still have some juice left in your body you probably need a GPS, instead. Mentor’s J VanDomelen has been tracking orders from the United Arab Emirates’ and its neighbors for ... » read more

Joe Costello To Get Back Into EDA?


While other writers in this world rely on gossip, there is a lot more that can come from hard work and paying attention. Perhaps one of the most famous and charismatic people from the EDA world is [getperson id="11147" p_name="Joe Costello"] – former CEO of [getentity id="22032" e_name="Cadence"] and still missed by many. Until recently he was CEO of a company called Orb Networks, a streamin... » read more

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