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

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

Emulation for Power


Solving power problems in today’s leading-edge SoCs requires not only the best architectural choices but advanced tools and techniques to determine the right path to take. This equates to a combination of hardware emulation and power analysis/optimization software tools. Design teams today must have real-life scenarios to accurately predict the power impact of their architectural decisions... » 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

A Fireside Chat With Imagination On Hardware-Assisted Development And Emulation


During one of my trips to Europe I was able to sit down with Colin McKellar, senior director of hardware engineering at Imagination Technologies. He is my main contact for all things verification at Imagination. Imagination’s product challenges include maintaining the level of quality of their IP products within shorter timelines and dealing with integration of their IP into more complex c... » read more

Is Art Acceptable In Verification?


The industry appears to have accepted that [getkc id="10" kc_name="verification"] involves art as well as science. This is usually based on one of three reasons, namely: the problem is large and complex; there is a lack of understanding and tools that enable it to be automated; and if it could be made a science, all of the jobs would have migrated offshore. Today, designs are built from pre-... » read more

The Power Estimation Challenge


If you wonder how important low power is in chip design today, consider the recent news in the blogosphere reporting the controversy surrounding Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 810 SoC — the company’s first flagship 64-bit chip, which will most likely power the top Android devices released in 2015. The story broke in early December along the lines that the 810 had problems with overheating. Whet... » read more

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