What Does An IoT Chip Look Like?


By Ed Sperling and Jeff Dorsch Internet of Things chip design sounds like a simple topic on the face of it. Look deeper, though, and it becomes clear there is no single IoT, and certainly no type of chip that will work across the ever-expanding number of applications and markets that collectively make up the IoT. Included under this umbrella term are sensors, various types of processors, ... » read more

IoT Myth Busting


The [getkc id="76" comment="Internet of Things"] (IoT) means many things to a large number of people, but one thing is clear—every discussion involving the IoT invariably includes some rather dramatic growth predictions for how many connected devices will be sold and who will be the primary beneficiaries. While that data helps spice up speeches, and typically gets people to read and quote ... » read more

How The Evolution Of SoC Design Is Igniting Innovation Again


A funny thing happened on the way to the future. The futurologists were proven wrong. They said for years that the electronics industry was “consolidating,” and they sketched visions of a future that involved less innovation and openness, with fewer opportunities for entrepreneurs to deliver on their dreams. Reality turned out to be different. Yes, consolidation continues among tradit... » read more

Is The IP Industry Healthy?


The semiconductor industry has been through many changes, each designed to reduce the total cost associated with the design and manufacture of chips. Twenty years ago, most companies had their own fabs and designed all of the circuitry on each chip. Today, only a handful of companies still own a fab and outsourcing design, in the form of intellectual property ([getkc id="43" kc_name="IP"]), has... » read more

The Basics Of Foundation IP For Automotive ICs


This white paper provides a broad overview of requirements that must be considered in order to design and manufacture integrated circuits (ICs) for the automotive sector. The paper looks specifically at the standards that apply to Foundation IP - logic libraries, embedded memories, and memory built-in self-test (BIST) - for different automotive IC functions and how reliability grades affect IP ... » read more

Re-Using IP In Packaging


For the past decade, the promise held forth by advanced packaging was that it would allow chipmakers to mix and match analog and digital IP without worrying about the process node at which they were developed or the physical interactions between components. This is a big deal when it comes to analog. Analog IP doesn't benefit from node shrinking the way digital logic does, and in many cases ... » read more

EDA, IP Growth Hits Double Digits


The cloud, advanced packaging and AI/machine learning pushed up EDA and IP revenue to the highest Q1 growth level since 2011. Revenue was up 10.5% year over year to $2.168 billion, compared with $1.962 billion in Q1 2016, according to just-released numbers from the Electronic System Design (ESD) Alliance. The four-quarter moving average increased by 10.6%. The two largest regions, the Americ... » read more

Data Management For Mixed-Signal Designs


Software teams have long used version control and data management systems and they have become an integral part of a so ware development environment. Practically, no significant software project is started without a software data management system and methodology in place. There are a variety of solutions, typically referred to as Software Configuration Management (SCM) systems, to choose from ... » read more

Verification In The Cloud


By Ed Sperling Leasing of cloud-based verification resources on an as-needed basis is finally beginning to gain traction after more than a decade of false starts and over-optimistic expectations. All of the major EDA vendors now offer cloud-based services. They view this as a way of either supplementing a chipmaker's existing resources at various peak use times, or for small and midsize com... » read more

ARC HS4x And HS4xD CPUs


Synopsys’ DesignWare ARC CPUs comprise a family of highly configurable and customizable processor cores, which ship in nearly two billion chips per year. ARC’s popularity in embedded devices makes the company second only to ARM in the number of chips that integrate its licensable CPUs. More than 230 ARC licensees use the cores in products that span a broad range of embedded applications, su... » read more

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