Emulation Uses Increase


For more than two decades, [getkc id="30" comment="emulation"] was a technology in search of a market. While on paper it has always made sense to speed up simulation, using hardware acceleration was so pricey that few companies could justify the cost. Fast-forward to today and emulation is a major contributor to the bottom line at all of the Big Three [getkc id="7" kc_name="EDA"] companies. ... » read more

Optimizing Emulator Utilization


Russ Klein describes how Codelink, a Mentor Graphics trace-based debug tool, gives software developers a traditional software debug view from a unique processor trace, enabling them to increase emulator utilization and enjoy a more productive debug experience. Codelink allows for software debug earlier in the design cycle, as it makes it possible to use the emulator without having debug circuit... » read more

Tools And Flows In 2015


This year more than 26 people provided predictions for 2015. Most of these came from the EDA industry, so the results may be rather biased. However, ecosystems are coming closer together in many parts of the semiconductor food chain, meaning that the EDA companies often can see what is happening in dependent industries and in the system design houses. Thus their predictions may have already res... » read more

The Danger of Using Patents


As I have written about recently, [getkc id="30" kc_name="emulation"] is a hot topic for EDA and the number and length of lawsuits related to the technology is almost overwhelming. The latest phase has just concluded with a summary judgment against [getentity id="22035" e_name="Synopsys"] on Jan. 20. It all started in late 2012 when Synopsys, which had just acquired [getentity id="22738" e_nam... » read more

Unraveling Power Methodologies


When working on articles, the editors at Semiconductor Engineering sometimes hear things that make them stand back and question what seems to be an industry truth. One such statement happened last month while researching a different article. The statement was: Most designs are not top-down, but in fact bottom-up when it comes to power management. The most used methodology today is that the RTL... » read more

Virtual Prototyping Takes Off


Semiconductor Engineering sat down to discuss [getkc id="104" kc_name="virtual prototyping"] with Barry Spotts, senior core competency FAE for fabric and tools at [getentity id="22186" comment="ARM"]; Vasan Karighattam, senior director of architecture for SoC and SSW engineering at [getentity id="22664" e_name="Open-Silicon"]; Tom De Schutter, senior product marketing manager for Virtualizer So... » read more

Hybrid Verification: The Only Way Forward


Semiconductor Engineering sat down to discuss the state of the industry for [getkc id="10" kc_name=" functional verification"]. The inability of RTL [getkc id="11" kc_name="simulation"] to keep up with verification needs is causing rapid change in the industry. Taking part in the discussion are Harry Foster, chief scientist at [getentity id="22017" e_name="Mentor Graphics"]; Janick Bergeron, fe... » read more

The Next Big Shift In Verification


We are coming to the end of the year—have you started your Christmas shopping list yet? For us bloggers, it is time for predictions about what the next year will bring in EDA technology. Three core trends will shape 2015—even more closely connected verification engines, innovations in hardware-assisted development, and software as a driver for verification. All three core trends are r... » read more

Keeping Up With The Productivity Challenge


Until recently, EDA software rode the coattails of increasing processor performance as part of its drive to continue providing faster and more powerful development software to the people designing, among other things, the next generation of faster processors. It was a fortuitous ring. Around the turn of the century, with the migration to multi-core computing systems, all of that changed. In ord... » read more

A Dream For The Future Of Real System-Level Design Validation


"I have a dream…that one day…all SoCs will be free…of bugs and verifying them will be a walk in the park. I have a dream…that one day…all software engineers will be able to validate their software on pre-silicon hardware at the speed of light, delivering fully functional embedded software “before-on-time” for tape-out. I have a dream today…Well, if not today, how about first ... » read more

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