tag: Mentor Graphics

A Node By Any Other Name
By Barry Pangrle - 12 May, 2014 - Comments: 3

Have you ever wondered what gives a particular CMOS technology node its name? When we talk about 20nm, 16nm or 14nm, what exactly does that number in front of the “nm” mean anyway? Is it the first layer metal half-pitch or the gate length (and while we’re at it, is that the printed gate length, the physical gate length, or the effective gate length)? The half-pitch refers to half the m... » read more

What’s Wrong With Power Signoff
By Ed Sperling - 12 May, 2014 - Comments: 0

Power signoff used to be a checklist item before a design went to tapeout. But as power has become a critical factor in designs, particularly at advanced nodes, signing off on power now needs to be done at multiple points throughout the design flow. That alone adds even greater complexity to already complex design processes because it requires fixed reference points and scenarios for taking mea... » read more

Pointing Fingers, Often In The Wrong Direction
By Ed Sperling - 08 May, 2014 - Comments: 0

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

Improving LP Verification Efficiency
By Ann Mutschler - 08 May, 2014 - Comments: 1

The addition of low power circuitry can create so many corner cases that many can escape even the best-written testbenches. This has driven the need for so many additional verification cycles to be run that there must be many datacenter managers at semiconductor companies wondering if it is a trick by the power companies to cause an equal amount of power to be consumed by low-power verification... » read more

Power Management Considerations For Efficient Embedded Systems Development
By Colin Walls - 08 May, 2014 - Comments: 2

Usable product life is a critical factor in the success of any portable device, and managing power efficiency is a key requirement for embedded systems today. Historically, power management was seen as a “hardware problem” that plagued development teams, but with today’s sophisticated devices and more specialized hardware, this impacts the software developer, as well. One reason for this ... » read more

Power Management Techniques For Smart Grid Devices
By Various Writers - 07 May, 2014 - Comments: 0

Energy efficiency is a top concern among developers building connected devices for the smart grid. Initially, the application-centric approach to building a device was used. But today, with sophisticated hardware power management features available on most modern processors, this is no longer the case. What’s needed is an OS-level approach that allows developers to take advantage of the full ... » read more

Blog Review: May 7
By Ed Sperling - 07 May, 2014 - Comments: 0

What if your toothbrush could talk? Semico Research’s Michell Prunty looks at the crowd-funded connected toothbrush design. And what else can it do? Cadence’s Richard Goering attended the Electronic Design Process Symposium in Monterey and summed up the progress in ESL: Power is less of an issue (for the moment), emulation is cheaper, but there is still a dearth of expertise and standard... » read more

Executive Insight: Wally Rhines
By Ann Mutschler - 05 May, 2014 - Comments: 1

Semiconductor Engineering sat down with Wally Rhines, chairman and CEO of Mentor Graphics, to discuss what is required for EDA to grow, key areas of opportunity for EDA growth and going against the grain. The interview is part of an ongoing series of in-depth interviews with top executives from all segments of the industry. SE: What keeps you awake at night? Rhines: Actually nothing keeps... » read more

The Week In Review: Design
By Ed Sperling - 02 May, 2014 - Comments: 0

Tools CEVA integrated Bluetooth processing into its DSP cores. In addition to audio and video and always-on capabilities, the company is pitching the combination as an all-in-one, ultra-low-power solution for the wearable electronics market. So how big is this market opportunity? IDC predicts the wearable computing market will grow from 19.2 million units this year to 112 million units in 2... » read more

Hiding The Electronic Crumbs
By Ed Sperling - 01 May, 2014 - Comments: 0

Imagine an old Western movie where the posse tracks the outlaws by following footsteps on a dirt trail or looking for broken branches. Now fast forward to the present, where the trail is electronic, the posse is comprised of bad guys, and the loot is frequently encrypted. As any security expert will concede, every security system can be compromised, every chip can be reverse engineered and h... » read more

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