Chiplets Vs. Soft IP: Different In Almost Every Way


Chiplets serve a similar function as the soft IP widely used in chips today, but the similarities end there. While both can speed time to market and enable design teams to focus limited resources where they can best be applied, the implementation, manufacturing, test, and long-term business requirements wrought by a chiplet marketplace would be very different. Soft IP (also known as RTL IP) ... » read more

Securing IP Integrity In Advanced SoC Design


In today’s complex system-on-chip (SoC) design flows, intellectual property (IP) blocks are everywhere—licensed from third parties, leveraged from internal libraries, or hand-crafted by expert teams. These IPs are typically delivered in a “black box” format and are expected to remain unchanged throughout the physical design stages, from initial floorplanning to top-level placement, rout... » read more

A Golden Source As The Single Source Of Truth In HSI


The hardware/software interface (HSI) is where system-on-chip (SoC) software defines the connections between the software and the underlying hardware. Maintaining a precise, synchronized HSI across all artifacts is challenging, and unmanaged deviations can propagate through the flow and affect integration schedules. Most complex SoCs rely on IP reuse, each with its own naming conventions, ha... » read more

Guarantee IP Integrity With Calibre IP Checker


In complex SoC designs, intellectual property (IP) blocks are critical yet vulnerable. Unintended modifications to IP during placement, routing or fill stages often go undetected by traditional DRC, leading to functional failures, performance degradation and costly re-spins. This paper introduces Calibre IP Checker, an automated, shift-left solution designed to guarantee IP integrity. It works ... » read more

Silicon IP Continues Steady Growth Path


EDA and silicon IP revenue increased 8.6% to $5.089 billion in Q2 2025, up from $4.6855 billion in Q2 2024, according to the ESD Alliance. Total EDA revenue growth was assisted by impressive results in the CAE category, the largest tool sector, which showed 17.2% growth over Q2 2024. “It was another good quarter overall," said Walden C. Rhines, executive sponsor of the SEMI Electronic Desi... » read more

What Does Semiconductor Disruption Look Like?


When conducting interviews for my article on the incorporation of AI within EDA tools, Anand Thiruvengadam, senior director and head of AI product management at Synopsys, said, "AI has the potential to transform how customers do chip design. The entire EDA flow can be disrupted with AI." He is not alone in making this kind of statement. Each year, I do a predictions piece, and I ask about how A... » read more

The Future Of SoC Design Is Data Movement


The semiconductor industry is experiencing rapid advances in chiplet adoption, high-bandwidth memory, Compute Express Link (CXL) fabrics, and automotive zonal architectures. As we move into the second half of 2025, the only sustainable path forward is a layered, physically aware, and automated interconnect methodology that can keep pace with escalating complexity. This article is Part Two of... » read more

Benefits And Challenges Of Using Chiplets


The move to chiplets opens the door to more features than can be packed into a reticle-sized SoC. That potentially means more processing power, simpler designs, and higher yields. But it's not as simple as swapping LEGO blocks into a chassis. Ashley Stevens, director of product management and marketing at Arteris, talks with Semiconductor Engineering about the challenges of using coherent versu... » read more

New Demands For IP Reuse


Experts at the Table: Semiconductor Engineering sat down to discuss the state of functional verification with Mohan Dhene, director for architecture and design at Alphawave Semi; Andy Nightingale, vice president for product management and marketing at Arteris; Dinesha Rao, senior group director for software engineering at Cadence; Chris Mueth, new opportunities business manager at Keysight;... » read more

System Integration With Standards-Based Automation


Today’s semiconductor designs support a broad range of applications, from mobile and edge devices to AI accelerators and data center systems. To keep pace, design teams are shifting from monolithic systems-on-chip (SoCs) to increasingly complex multi-die and chiplet-based architectures. These heterogeneous systems often incorporate IP developed at different times, by different teams, or sourc... » read more

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