High Level Synthesis: Significant Differences Remain


In part 1 of this experts series on high-level synthesis (HLS), Semiconductor Engineering sat down with Mike Meredith, vice president of technical marketing at Cadence/Forte Design Systems; Mark Warren, Solutions Group director at Cadence; Thomas Bollaert, vice president of application engineering at Calypto; and Devadas Varma, senior director at Xilinx. The initial part of the discussion looke... » read more

High Level Synthesis Grows Up


When Semiconductor Engineering proposed this Experts At The Table discussion, which was held at the recently concluded DVCon, [getentity id="22032" e_name="Cadence"] had yet to express its intention to purchase [getentity id="22087" e_name="Forte"]. Little did we know that the stakes in the [gettech id="31015" comment="high-level synthesis"] (HLS) arena were being raised so high. Is this an in... » read more

The Road Ahead For 2014: Tools


In the third and final part of this predictions series we see the natural conclusion of market shifts that are driving changes in semiconductors, and which in turn drive the tools and IP needed to create those systems. To be expected, the changes fall into a few areas: New tools, techniques and changes required for smaller geometries; A migration to higher-levels of abstraction and the... » read more

What’s Next For Power Optimization


Today it is difficult to find a design that does not consider some kind of power optimization. Mobile needs it to preserve battery life, data centers need it to reduce operating cost, and many are finding they need it to meet tougher regulatory requirements. In a survey conducted two years ago, there was no segment of the industry that was not taking a serious look at reducing their power profi... » read more

Will History Repeat Itself?


Hands up — how many people read the books by Clayton Christensen, books such as The Innovator’s Dilemma? His books were talked about endlessly in the corridors of the EDA companies when they first came out. They all wanted to identify the next disruption and could find reasons why almost every new tool was going to be disruptive. For people not familiar with his work, his main premise wa... » read more

Raising The IP Abstraction Level


By Ed Sperling An increasing reliance on commercial and re-used IP and more emphasis placed on software development is adding even more pressure onto semiconductor design teams to figure out the benefits and limitations of myriad possible choices earlier in the design process. Design teams already are under pressure to meet increasingly tighter market deadlines, and it is stressing every pa... » read more

The Controversial Spec


By Ann Steffora Mutschler Design sophistication and complexity has made it increasingly difficult to fully specify the expected behavior of a block in an SoC, but this is necessary for design and verification teams. How do you write a “good” and “complete” specification of functionality? It turns out that the discussion of defining what a good and complete specification is and how t... » read more

Watching And Waiting For DFP


By Ann Steffora Mutschler Although the semiconductor industry has been talking about the need to optimize SoC designs for power for many years, it is safe to say it’s still in the very early stages of the 'Design for Power' approach. That’s not to say that methodologies and tools are not in place. There are actually a number of options available, depending on the level of abstractio... » read more

Like Oil And Water


By Ann Steffora Mutschler For years, the promise and allure of a concurrent design methodology included talk of models, high-level synthesis, virtual prototyping and other system-level technologies all peacefully coexisting in a single design methodology. While it sounds like a good idea, the model-based design approach hasn’t mixed well with the virtual prototype approach. And at l... » read more

Experts At The Table: Managing Power At Higher Levels Of Abstraction


Low-Power Engineering sat down to discuss the advantages of dealing with power at a high level with Mike Meyer, a Cadence fellow; Grant Martin, chief scientist at Tensilica; Vic Kulkarni, senior vice president and general manager at Apache Design; Shawn McCloud, vice president of marketing at Calypto; and Brett Cline, vice president of marketing at sales at Forte Design Systems. What follows ar... » read more

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