2017: Tool And Methodology Shifts


As the markets for semiconductor products evolve, so do the tools that enable automation, optimization and verification. While tools rarely go away, they do bend like plants toward light. Today, it is no longer the mobile phone industry that is defining the direction, but automotive and the Internet of Things (IoT). Both of these markets have very different requirements and each creates their o... » read more

Hybrid Simulation Picks Up Steam


As electronic products shift from hardware-centric to software-directed, design teams are relying increasingly on a simulation approach that includes multiple engines—and different ways to use those engines—to encompass as much of the system as possible. How engineers go about using these approaches, and even how they define them, varies greatly from one company to the next. Sometimes it... » read more

Real-Time Performance Across The Factory Floor


Next generation processors continue to push the performance envelope. It seems the price continues to drop while the processing speeds increase with each new processor release. I recall discussions not that long ago in which the future utility of real-time operating systems and middleware were being bantered about as if they were not going to be required going forward. After all, with each subs... » read more

The Future Of Medical Device Certification


Given the critical nature of the functions performed by today’s medical devices, greater scrutiny along with the need for more certifiable software is on this rise. There is more interest today in government standards such as FDA 510K and IEC 62304 for medical device software. Enhanced scrutiny from government agencies can introduce unexpected delays – or even jeopardize the commercial rele... » read more

What Can Go Wrong In Automotive


Semiconductor Engineering sat down to discuss automotive engineering with Jinesh Jain, supervisor for advanced architectures in Ford’s Research and Innovation Center in Palo Alto; Raed Shatara, market development for automotive infotainment at [getentity id="22331" comment="STMicroelectronics"]; Joe Hupcey, verification product technologist at [getentity id="22017" e_name="Mentor Graphics"]; ... » read more

Blog Review: Jan. 25


Synopsys' Anand Thiruvengadam looks at why there's an increased need for mixed-signal verification. Mentor's Craig Armenti argues for incorporating design for reliability into PCB projects. Cadence's Paul McLellan reports from the latest in ESDA's Emerging Companies series about the roots and future of RISC-V. NI's James Kimery shares updates from the 3GPP Workshop on 5G in Vienna. ... » read more

Will EUV Kill Multi-Patterning?


When I first began working on double-patterning (DP) tools back in late 2010, there was already talk that it might be a fruitless, or at a minimum, very short-lived project, as extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography was just around the corner and would make all multi-patterning (MP) obsolete. Well, as I begin my seventh year on this project, I can hear echoes of Mark Twain as clearly, the report... » read more

Transferring Skills Getting Harder


Rising complexity in developing chips at advanced nodes, and an almost perpetual barrage of new engineering challenges at each new node, are making it more difficult for everyone involved to maintain consistent skill levels across a growing number of interrelated technologies. The result is that engineers are being forced to specialize, but when they work with other engineers with different ... » read more

FinFET And Multi-Patterning Aware Place-And-Route Implementation


The use of finFETs and multi-patterning has a huge impact on the entire physical implementation flow. This paper outlines the new challenges in placement, routing, optimization, and physical verification and describes how the Nitro-SoC place and route system handles them. To read more, click here. » read more

Blog Review: Jan. 18


Mentor's Michael White warns that while skipping a node can be appealing, be prepared for the increase in computation requirements. Synopsys' Hezi Saar checks out the benefits of moving to the MIPI I3C standardized sensor interface. Cadence's Paul McLellan highlights a talk by Eric Grosse on approaches to security and the RISC-V architecture. Applied's Mike Chudzik explains the problem... » read more

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