IP Verification Challenges

By Brian Bailey - 30 Jul, 2015 - Comments: 0

At the Design Automation Conference this year, the Designer and IP tracks were the stars of the show in many ways. These sessions catered to industry rather than academia and provided engineers with information they could directly use in their jobs. Many of the sessions were filled to capacity and Anne Cirkel, general chair for the 52nd DAC, was enthusiastic about the growing success of these t... » read more

EDA’s Clouded Future

By Brian Bailey - 25 Jun, 2015 - Comments: 0

There was a time, not that long ago, when chip design and EDA tools consumed some of the largest data centers with tens of thousands of machines and single datasets that consumed more than a hard disk could hold. The existing IT capabilities of the times were stretched to their limits. But while design sizes grew, other aspects of the flow did not develop as fast. “This has been driven by ... » read more

Is SystemC Broken?

By Brian Bailey - 26 Mar, 2015 - Comments: 19

In order to perform architectural exploration, performance analysis and optimization, early validation of software, improved productivity in hardware development and many other tasks, the industry needs a viable [getkc id="104" kc_name="virtual prototype"]. That requires a suitable language in order to express necessary concepts at a high enough level of [getkc id="101" kc_name="abstraction"] s... » read more

Design By Architect Or Committee?

By Brian Bailey - 26 Mar, 2015 - Comments: 5

Everything we do is based on a language. It doesn’t matter if we are talking about design, verification, specification, software or mask data. They all provide a way to communicate intent, and then there are engines that work on the intent to produce something else that is desirable, also based on a language. Over time, the EDA industry has built up a hierarchy of languages from the most deta... » read more

Who Pays For EDA Shift Left?

By Brian Bailey - 12 Feb, 2015 - Comments: 0

While working on the predictions articles for 2015 (markets, design, semiconductors, tools and flows), a number of companies talked about the great shift left that is happening in the industry. What was surprising was the number of companies that mentioned it, and in very different ways. It is clear that shift left does not mean the same thing to all people. While they all see it addressing ... » read more

With Responsibility Comes Power

By Brian Bailey - 12 Feb, 2015 - Comments: 0

The debate continues as to whether [getkc id="106" kc_name="power"] has risen to become a primary design consideration, or if it remains secondary to functionality and performance. What is indisputable is the rise in the importance of both power and energy conservation. As technology improves, additional aspects of the design flow are being affected. With that, the focus for power reduction is ... » read more

New Market Expectations For 2015

By Brian Bailey - 29 Jan, 2015 - Comments: 0

This year more than 26 people provided predictions for 2015. Most of these came from the EDA industry, so the results may be rather biased. However, ecosystems are coming closer together in many parts of the semiconductor food chain, meaning that the EDA companies often can see what is happening in dependent industries and in the system design houses. Thus their predictions may have already res... » read more

Tools And Flows In 2015

By Brian Bailey - 29 Jan, 2015 - Comments: 0

What Will Change In Design For 2015?

By Brian Bailey - 15 Jan, 2015 - Comments: 0

Industry Scorecard For 2014

By Brian Bailey - 18 Dec, 2014 - Comments: 0

At the end of last year, Semiconductor Engineering asked the industry about the developments they expected to see in 2014. If you care to refresh your memory, they were categorized under markets, semiconductors and development tools. Now it is time to look back and see how accurate those predictions were and where they fell short. Markets The obvious trend, at the beginning of the year, wa... » read more

← Older posts Newer posts →

Knowledge Centers
Entities, people and technologies explored

Shift Left Is The Tip Of The Iceberg

A transformative change is underway for semiconductor design and EDA. New languages, models, and abstractions will need to be created.

by Brian Bailey

Partitioning In The Chiplet Era

Understanding how chiplets interact under different workloads is critical to ensuring signal integrity and optimal performance in heterogeneous designs.

by Ann Mutschler

3.5D: The Great Compromise

Pros and cons of a middle-ground chiplet assembly that combines 2.5D and 3D-IC.

by Ed Sperling

AI’s Role In Chip Design Widens, Drawing In New Startups

Focus is on letting engineers do much more with the same or fewer resources — and less drudgery.

by Karen Heyman

What Comes After HBM For Chiplets

The standard for high-bandwidth memory limits design freedom at many levels, but that is required for interoperability. What freedoms can be taken from other functions to make chiplets possible?

by Brian Bailey

Memory Fundamentals For Engineers

eBook: Nearly everything you need to know about memory, including detailed explanations of the different types of memory; how and where these are used today; what's changing, which memories are successful and which ones might be in the future; and the limitations of each memory type.

by The SE Staff

Why Small Fab And Assembly Houses Are Thriving

Megafabs churning out the most advanced processors are not the only game in town.

by Bryon Moyer

New AI Processors Architectures Balance Speed With Efficiency

Hot Chips 24: Large language models ratchet up pressure for sustainable computing and heterogeneous integration; data management becomes key differentiator.