Time To Market Concerns Worsen


Time to market has always been an issue for chipmakers in highly competitive sectors, but as complexity of chips continues to grow at advanced nodes, and as markets shift increasingly toward consumer electronics, it has jumped to the No. 1 concern. Interviews with engineers at multiple levels inside of some of the largest and midsize chipmakers, conducted by Semiconductor Engineering over th... » read more

How Reliable Is Your IP?


Almost everyone who has bought a new smartphone, car, home electronics device or appliance either has experienced technical glitches that require a replacement or repair, or they know someone who has experienced these problems. The good news is that only a very small fraction of the electronic glitches or failures can be contributed to hardware design. Most of it is due to manufacturing vari... » read more

Executive Insight: Taher Madraswala


Semiconductor Engineering sat down with Taher Madraswala, president of Open-Silicon, to talk about future challenges, opportunities and changes. What follows are excerpts of that interview. SE: What worries you most? Madraswala: What worries me at the industry-level is the growing effect that business constraints are having on product innovation. We’ve done a very good job of advancing ... » read more

IP Integration Challenges Rising


It’s not just [getkc id="80" comment="lithography"] that is putting a crimp in sub-28nm designs. As more functions, features, transistors and software are added onto chips, the pressure to get chips out the door has forced chipmakers to lean more heavily on third-party IP providers. Results, as you might expect, have been mixed. The number of blocks has mushroomed, creating its own web of ... » read more

3 Challenges Of Delivering Configurable Semiconductor IP


Over time, commercial IP products have morphed from single function blocks to 100% configurable IPs where no two instances are the same. In this article I point out the challenges of creating configurable IP, and the best-known practices to address them. IP Configurability Spectrum Throughout the history of chip design, there has been a spectrum of configurability that has been built into i... » read more

Tech Talk: Photonics, Take 2


Mentor Graphics’ John Ferguson explains why light is getting so much attention for inter-chip communications, where it excels, and why it has limitations. This is the second part in a two-part series. [youtube vid=4-5FbxIpIk4] To view part 1, click here. » read more

Pointing Fingers, Often In The Wrong Direction


Every design these days, regardless of whether it’s a processor, an SoC, an ASIC, FPGA or stacked die, relies on a combination of re-used and third-party intellectual property. No company—not even Intel, Apple or Samsung—has the capability of building everything itself within a highly compressed market window. There is a spectrum of IP use and re-use, of course. In some cases, it may i... » read more

Pain Management


In part one of this series, the focus was on overlapping and new pain points in the semiconductor flow, from initial conception of what needs to be in a chip all the way through to manufacturing. Part two looks at how companies are attempting to manage that pain. It’s no secret that [getkc id="81" kc_name="SoC"]s are getting more complicated to design, debug and build, but the complexity i... » read more

Tech Talk: Debugging IP


Just because IP is standard doesn't mean it will function as expected in a complex SoC. Ravindra Aneja, senior technical marketing manager at Atrenta, looks at what needs to be done to make sure everything works together. [youtube vid=wlDabbrF2zU] » read more

Big Shift In SoC Verification


Semiconductor Engineering sat down to discuss software-driven verification with Ken Knowlson, principal engineer at Intel; Mark Olen, product manager for the Design Verification Technology Division of Mentor Graphics; Steve Chappell, senior manager for CAE technology and verification at Synopsys; Frank Schirrmeister, group director for product marketing of the System Development Suite at Cadenc... » read more

← Older posts Newer posts →