Blog Review: Sept. 2


Arm's Pranay Prabhat highlights research into zero-power or low-power sensing devices and work toward designing a microcontroller that could fit with DARPA N-ZERO sensors. Mentor's Shivani Joshi provides a primer on the ODB++ standard data exchange file format that generates PCB design data files for use in fabrication, assembly, and test. Cadence's Paul McLellan shares some highlights fr... » read more

New Architectures, Much Faster Chips


The chip industry is making progress in multiple physical dimensions and with multiple architectural approaches, setting the stage for huge performance increases based on more modular and heterogeneous designs, new advanced packaging options, and continued scaling of digital logic for at least a couple more process nodes. A number of these changes have been discussed in recent conferences. I... » read more

Week In Review: Design, Low Power


Tools & IP Monozukuri unveiled its IC/Package co-design tool, GENIO. GENIO integrates existing silicon and package EDA flows to create full co-design and I/O optimization of complex multi-chip designs.  It works seamlessly across all existing EDA flows and comprises floor planning, I/O planning and end-to-end interconnect planning combined with cross-hierarchical pathfinding optimization.... » read more

Challenges In Using AI In Verification


Pressure to use AI/ML techniques in design and verification is growing as the amount of data generated from complex chips continues to explode, but how to begin building those capabilities into tools, flows and methodologies isn't always obvious. For starters, there is debate about whether the data needs to be better understood before those techniques are used, or whether it's best to figure... » read more

The Evolution Of High-Level Synthesis


High-level synthesis is getting yet another chance to shine, this time from new markets and new technology nodes. But it's still unclear how fully this technology will be used. Despite gains, it remains unlikely to replace the incumbent RTL design methodology for most of the chip, as originally expected. Seen as the foundational technology for the next generation of EDA companies around the ... » read more

Radio Frequency Technology Is Found Everywhere In Daily Life


By Greg Curtis and YuLing Lin Innovation is everywhere around us. From high-performance computing, communications, autonomous driving, and the Internet of Things (figure 1), each segment has led to a rapid increase in design innovation. This innovation has been particularly true in communications, as Radio Frequency (RF) technology is found everywhere in daily life. RF technology is critical... » read more

Accelerate Time To Market With Calibre nmLVS-Recon Technology


One thing is clear…tapeouts are getting harder, and taking longer. As part of a growing suite of innovative early-stage design verification technologies, the Calibre nmLVS-Recon tool enables design teams to rapidly examine dirty and immature designs to find and fix high-impact circuit errors earlier and faster, leading to an overall reduction in tapeout schedules and time to market. To rea... » read more

Blog Review: Aug. 26


Cadence's Paul McLellan shares some highlights from Hot Chips, including the massive growth in deep learning models, the basics of designing neural network models, and challenges involved in different approaches. Mentor's Colin Walls explores memory management units, its job of translating an address used by the CPU to an alternative address, and why this remapping is desirable and useful. ... » read more

Week In Review: Auto, Security, Pervasive Computing


Pervasive computing — data center, edge, IoT SEMI formed a new standards committee to develop global standards for flexible hybrid electronics (FHE). The SEMI Standards Flexible Hybrid Electronics Global Technical Committee will develop FHE standards for design, materials, manufacturing, packaging and systems and to drive industry growth. IPC is also working on FHE standards as an industry s... » read more

Monitoring Chips After Manufacturing


New regulations and variability of advanced process nodes are forcing chip designers to insert additional capabilities in silicon to help with comprehension, debug, analytics, safety, security, and design optimization. The impact of this will be far-reaching as the industry discusses what capabilities can be shared between these divergent tasks, the amount of silicon area to dedicate to it, ... » read more

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