Asynchronous’ Impact On Tools

By Ann Mutschler - 25 Jun, 2015 - Comments: 0

In the right situation, using asynchronous logic makes a lot of sense—especially for security and IoT. But moving into the asynchronous design involves making tradeoffs, figuring out how the technical requirements of an application will impact the design, and understanding the limits of EDA tools in this area. “It's going to be halfway between digital and analog support,” said Bernard ... » read more

What Not To Verify

By Ann Mutschler - 23 Apr, 2015 - Comments: 0

It is well understood that [getkc id="10" kc_name="verification"] is all about mitigating and managing risk, and success here begins with a good verification planning process. During the planning process, the project team creates a list of specific design functions and use cases that must be verified—and they identify the technique used to verify each specific item on the list. That list c... » read more

Blurring The Lines On Prototyping

By Ann Mutschler - 23 Apr, 2015 - Comments: 0

Prototyping is an integral part of every [getkc id="81" kc_name="SoC"] today, with two main approaches being used: virtual or software-based, and physical, which includes FPGA-based boards as well as hardware emulation systems. [getkc id="104" kc_name="Virtual prototyping"] is typically used for software development in the early stages of SoC design, even before SoC [getkc id="49" kc_name="R... » read more

Brite Semiconductor: Design Services

By Ed Sperling - 20 Apr, 2015 - Comments: 0

These days it's increasingly common for large commercial foundries to have a design services counterpart—TSMC has GlobalUnichip. GlobalFoundries has an entire ecosystem as well as a dedicated partner, Invecas. And China's SMIC has Brite Semiconductor. Brite was founded in 2008 by Open-Silicon as a way to tap the Chinese market, but the startup has taken some twists since then. It now is un... » read more

The Week In Review: Design/IoT

By Jesse Allen - 17 Apr, 2015 - Comments: 0

Mergers & Acquisitions ARM made two acquisitions related to Bluetooth radio: Wicentric, a Bluetooth Smart stack and profile provider, and Sunrise Micro Devices (SMD), a provider of sub-one volt Bluetooth radio IP. The IP of both companies will be integrated to form ARM's new low-power radio IP portfolio. Numbers EDA revenue grew 11.9% in Q4 2014 to $2.1 billion, a new record for th... » read more

Blog Review: April 1

By Jesse Allen - 01 Apr, 2015 - Comments: 0

A Russian plan to build a massive cargo plane to deliver tanks at supersonic speed—A roll of tape coated in squid proteins provides perfect camouflage—A yacht made of volcanic fibers battling the world's roughest seas: Ansys' Justin Nescott finds everything for a James Bond movie in this week's top tech articles. Writing for Synopsys, Broadcom's Hari Balisetty looks at reusable sequences... » read more

Customized On-Chip Process Monitors

By Khushal Gondaliya - 26 Mar, 2015 - Comments: 0

The sensitivity of digital circuits to process variations is continuously increasing with scaling in MOSFET devices. The effect of process variations has a substantial impact on the power, performance, and reliability of products. These process variations can be local or across the chip or wafer-to-wafer, or even lot-to-lot. These process variations need to be observed and analyzed in order to ... » read more

Partition Lines Growing Fuzzy

By Ed Sperling - 26 Feb, 2015 - Comments: 0

For as long as most semiconductor engineers can remember, chips with discrete functions started out on a printed circuit board, progressed into chip sets when it made sense and eventually were integrated onto the same die. The primary motivations behind this trend were performance and cost—shorter distance, fewer mask layers, less silicon. But this equation has been changing over the past ... » read more

IP Market Booms At Advanced Nodes

By Ann Mutschler - 26 Feb, 2015 - Comments: 0

As [getkc id="81" kc_name="SoC"] design and manufacturing costs rise, system OEMs are wringing as much of that increase as they can from ASIC vendors. The result is that engineering teams on the design and test side are being constrained by budgets at a time when complexity is rising and time-to-market pressures are increasing. At least one segment is benefiting from directly this. Budgetary... » read more

Custom Versus Platform Design

By Ed Sperling - 26 Feb, 2015 - Comments: 0

The increase in [getkc id="81" kc_name="SoC"] complexity is being mirrored by a rise in complexity within the markets that drive demand for those chips. The upshot is that a push toward greater connectivity, lower power and better performance—and all for a minimal cost—has turned the pros and cons for custom design vs. platforms and superchips into a murky decision-making process. For t... » read more

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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

Key Technologies To Extend EUV To 14 Angstroms

Alongside high-NA EUV will be better-performing photoresists, reduced roughness using passivation and etch, and lateral etching to reduce tip-to-tip dimensions.

by Laura Peters

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

tag: Open-Silicon