The Next Big Shift In Verification


We are coming to the end of the year—have you started your Christmas shopping list yet? For us bloggers, it is time for predictions about what the next year will bring in EDA technology. Three core trends will shape 2015—even more closely connected verification engines, innovations in hardware-assisted development, and software as a driver for verification. All three core trends are r... » read more

Migrating Consumer Electronics To The Automotive Market With Calibre PERC


Tough reliability standards for electronic automotive safety systems ensure that integrated circuits (ICs) for these systems comply with demanding performance and reliability requirements. However, companies seeking to leverage their consumer-based intellectual property (IP) for use in automotive “infotainment” and “connected car” applications are finding that many of these performance ... » read more

Design Rules Explode At New Nodes


Semiconductor Engineering sat down changing design rules with Sergey Shumarayev, senior director of custom IP design at Altera; Luigi Capodieci, R&D fellow at [getentity id="22819" comment="GlobalFoundries"]; Michael White, director of product marketing for Calibre Physical Verification at [getentity id="22017" e_name="Mentor Graphics"], and Coby Zelnik, CEO of [getentity id="22478" e_name=... » read more

Photoresist Problems Ahead


As the semiconductor industry begins its ramp to manufacturing at 10nm and below, activity is heating up involving lithography modeling. The goal is to be ready when all the pieces of the puzzle are in place. That includes [gettech id="31045" comment="EUV"], when it finally becomes commercially viable, as well as extending ArF [getkc id="80" comment="lithography"]. When it comes to lithogra... » read more

The Week In Review: Design/IoT


An Intel study conducted by TNS showed that tech gadgets topped the holiday gift list this year, including tablets, laptops and smart phones. The study also found that 60% of Americans peeked at their holiday gifts as kids, and 25% still look. Deals Mentor Graphics added Macnica Americas as a distributor for its simulator, functional verification and PCB simulation and analysis tools. So... » read more

Fill Database Management Strategies At Advanced Nodes


Fill has been around for many nodes, and was originally introduced to improve manufacturing results. The foundries learned that by managing density they were able to reduce wafer thickness variations created during chemical-mechanical polishing (CMP) processes, so they introduced density design rule checks (DRC). To meet these density requirements, designers “filled” open areas of the layou... » read more

Divide And Conquer: Hierarchical DFT For SoC Designs


Large System on Chip (SoC) designs present many challenges to all design disciplines, including design-for-test (DFT). By taking a divide-and-conquer approach to test, significant savings in tool runtime and memory consumption can be realized. This whitepaper describes the basic components of a hierarchical DFT methodology, the benefits that it provides, and the tool automation that is availabl... » read more

Blog Review: Nov. 12


ARM's Eoin McCann provides a primer to software-defined networking, which uses a higher level of abstraction to create a centralized controller. This is a new twist on networking—with a bit of deja vu thrown in. Mentor's Matthew Ballance points to a perfect storm for verification—shrinking features, more layers and more embedded processors. He has some tips for how to deal with all of t... » read more

More Things Are Critical Systems


Defining a critical system used to be pretty obvious. It was something that could affect the health and safety of people, such as the chip inside a pacemaker or insulin pump, a car's braking system or an airplane's guidance system. But as more devices are connected together, that definition is changing and expanding. More devices are now considered critical, such as a connected baby monitor ... » read more

Designing For Energy Efficiency


Swiss watchmakers have nothing to worry about for the moment. As top-name companies crowd into the wearable market with full-featured watches, limits on battery life and frequent charges undoubtedly will limit their popularity. Smart watches look cool or clunky, depending upon your perspective, but none of them lasts long enough between charges to be a serious market contender. That's certai... » read more

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