Experts At The Table: Challenges At 20nm


By Ed Sperling Low-Power/High-Performance Engineering sat down to discuss the challenges at 20nm and beyond with Jean-Pierre Geronimi, special projects director at STMicroelectronics; Pete McCrorie, director of product marketing for silicon realization at Cadence; Carey Robertson, director of product marketing at Mentor Graphics; and Isadore Katz, president and CEO of CLK Design Automation. Wh... » read more

The Week In Review: Aug. 23


By Ed Sperling Cadence won a deal with Realtek, which licensed the Tensilica HiFi audio DSP core for voice recognition technology. Fast voice triggers have been possible for some time, but being able to combine that with low power for mobile devices isn’t easy because the devices are always on—or at least enough “on” to pick up voice commands. Mentor Graphics turned in a record-bre... » read more

Start The Revolution


By Jon McDonald “Know thyself.” That advice is promoted in so many different forms it's hard to know where it started. I have been involved in a number of projects recently in which these words would have greatly simplified the project flow. “Simplified” is probably not quite the right word. The issue in this case is not to simplify the project, but to properly understand, characterize... » read more

Making Time to Do It Right


By Jon McDonald Change can be a very difficult thing. Most organizations I talk to about adopting system-level design know it’s a worthwhile investment. They believe it will have a positive return. They genuinely want to improve their processes, but believe they don’t have time to invest in making the change. In a recent conversation I heard an excellent encapsulation of this thinking. It ... » read more

Software Impact Grows


By Ed Sperling As the number of processors and processor cores increase in SoC, so does the amount of software. But unlike hardware, which grows linearly, software frequently grows exponentially. The great advantage of software is configurability—both before and after tapeout—yet it adds many more possible permutations and interactions that need to be worked out. And unlike the old PC m... » read more

Buying And Selling EDA Companies


By Ed Sperling The rule of thumb for mergers and acquisitions is that the majority will fail. So why, despite concerns about big companies buying up the tools of startups, does EDA’s track record look so good? There are a number of answers that are unique to the EDA industry: There is no manufacturing that needs to be absorbed by the acquirer, which greatly simplifies any deal. Sale... » read more

Aging: Not Always A Bad Thing


By Ann Steffora Mutschler When IC devices are produced and shipped to end customers, it is important that they will function as specified in the application environment. Determining how a device will operate over time is a key aspect of overall reliability and is commonly referred to as ‘aging.’ Aging of electronics is not a new problem. In fact, analog and automotive designers have bee... » read more

Making Time to Do It Right


By Jon McDonald Change can be a very difficult thing. Most organizations I talk to about adopting system-level design know it’s a worthwhile investment. They believe it will have a positive return. They genuinely want to improve their processes, but believe they don’t have time to invest in making the change. In a recent conversation I heard an excellent encapsulation of this thinking. It ... » read more

Case Study: Microsemi Memory Interface


Microsemi qualified a structured approach to mixed-signal SoC verification using Questa ADMS, systematic pre-planning, and the OVM. To view this white paper, click here. » read more

Managing Memory With Embedded Software


By Ann Steffora Mutschler Memory is shaping up to be a key leverage point for embedded software going forward as it represents such a large fraction of the silicon real estate in today’s SoCs. Managing memory effectively and memory bandwidth also represents a significant fraction of the potential bottlenecks and the power dissipation. As such, everything embedded software can do to enhance h... » read more

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