Blog Review: May 27


Mentor's Neil Johnson takes a look at achieving a practical verification methodology starting with an exclusively constrained random flow and building up by adding techniques and gauging the consequences. Cadence's Paul McLellan explains the history of neural networks and how we've been trying to mimic the brain for decades, only to see funding dry up until a sudden resurgence of annotated i... » read more

Week In Review: Design, Low Power


Tools & IP Cadence unveiled ten two verification IP (VIP) to support hyperscale data centers, automotive, and consumer and mobile applications. The new VIPs include complete bus functional models, integrated protocol checks and coverage models, and a specification-compliant verification plan. The VIPs cover CXL, HBM3, Ethernet 802.3ck, CSI-2 3.0, MIPI I3C 1.1, TileLink, eUSB2, UFS 3.1, MIP... » read more

Week In Review: Auto, Security, Pervasive Computing


Edge, cloud, data center Cadence added new verification IP (VIP) for hyperscalar data centers that supports CXL – Compute Express Link, HBM3, and Ethernet 802.3ck. The VIP are part of Cadence’s Verification Suite. Cadence also released IP for 56G long-reach SerDes on TSMC’s N7 and N6 process technologies. Many Mentor, a Siemens Business, IC design tools are now certified TSMC’s N5 a... » read more

Blog Review: May 20


Synopsys' Jonathan Knudsen demystifies fuzzing techniques and why the process of sending targeted, intentionally invalid data is important to determining security. Mentor's Chris Spear explains both the potential benefits and challenges of the UVM Configuration Database and guidelines to improve performance. Cadence's Paul McLellan continues the look back at mobile history with the beginn... » read more

Power Management And Integration Of IPs In SoCs: Part 2


Most IP are available as either soft or hard macros. But both pose immense challenges. This is especially so when integrating them into low power designs and conducting power aware (PA) verification, because the majority of IP are self-contained and pre-verified at the block level and they must be preserved in their entirety when integrated or verified in the SoC level. Part one of this two ... » read more

Low-Power Analog


Analog circuitry is usually a small part of a large SoC, but it does not scale in the same way as digital circuitry under Moore's Law. The power consumed by analog is becoming an increasing concern, especially for battery-operated devices. At the same time, little automation is available to help analog designers reduce consumption. "Newer consumer devices, like smartphones and wearables, alo... » read more

Auto Power Becoming Much More Complex


Rising electronics content in automobiles is putting increased focus on automotive power delivery networks (PDNs). Safety implications mean that thorough power design and verification, along with novel power isolation techniques, are needed at the vehicle level, involving both electrical and mechanical considerations. The electronic takeover can be measured by the percentage that electronic ... » read more

‘More Than Moore’ Reality Check


The semiconductor industry is embracing multi-die packages as feature scaling hits the limits of physics, but how to get there with the least amount of pain and at the lowest cost is a work in progress. Gaps remain in tooling and methodologies, interconnect standards are still being developed, and there are so many implementations of packaging that the number of choices is often overwhelming. ... » read more

UPF 1.0, UPF 2.0, UPF 2.1, UPF 3.0, And Now UPF 3.1


UPF is the fastest evolving IEEE standard, and UPF 3.1 is a major milestone in its evolution. This paper provides an in-depth analysis and relevant examples of all the new features introduced in UPF 3.1 along with semantic differences with earlier versions. It also highlights migration challenges to help users migrate from existing power formats to UPF 3.1. To read more, click here. » read more

Blog Review: May 13


Mentor's Neil Johnson considers when in a project certain verification methods should be deployed and the relative impact of techniques at a given point in subsystem design. Cadence's Paul McLellan looks back at the development of mobile standards with 2G, GSM, and the transition to all-digital transmission. Synopsys' Taylor Armerding highlights five online courses to boost your software ... » read more

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