Power Optimization Requires Higher-Level Thinking


By Ann Steffora Mutschler With consumer demand—much of it for power sensitive mobile devices—driving the bulk of semiconductor design activity, it would seem obvious that the way chips are designed would have changed to reflect that. But have they? From an EDA perspective, the term ‘system level’ is used to mean ‘product level’ but this may not be enough, especially when it come... » read more

Delicate Balance


By Joe Hupcey III It’s not surprising that power optimization is a critical part of today’s complex designs. Unbeknownst to most consumers is an underlying methodology that every design engineer must follow to make sure a consumer device meets the power requirements of the consumer—even if the consumer doesn’t realize they’re demanding it. The situation in industrial products, suc... » read more

Watching And Waiting For DFP


By Ann Steffora Mutschler Although the semiconductor industry has been talking about the need to optimize SoC designs for power for many years, it is safe to say it’s still in the very early stages of the 'Design for Power' approach. That’s not to say that methodologies and tools are not in place. There are actually a number of options available, depending on the level of abstractio... » read more

Taking Stock Of Models


By Ann Steffora Mutschler The world of modeling in SoC design is multi-dimensional to say the least. One dimension contains the model creators and providers, while the other is comprised of the types of models that exist in the marketplace. “What we’re seeing today is that we have basically models coming from either IP providers—the people that are actually producing those cores ... » read more

Chip Architect Challenges


By Ann Steffora Mutschler Product lifecycles can be shorter than the design cycle and even the process development cycle, particularly in the consumer handheld device market. It’s up to the chip architect to decide how the functions should be implemented. The good news is there are a number of options available, ranging from mapping the design to 2.5D technology, moving to finFET tr... » read more

A Necessary Duo: IP And Assertions


By Ann Steffora Mutschler Assertions are key to complete and accurate verification, as I dove into here, and there are implications for IP as well. In the case of an embedded processor core that is shipped out as an RTL by the IP vendor, and then used by an engineering team to create a cell phone SoC or to create a consumer SoC for a set-top box or what have you, that core goes into an end ... » read more

How Long Will 28nm Last?


By Ann Steffora Mutschler As soon as a next generation semiconductor manufacturing process node is out, bets are taken on just how long the current advanced process node will last. The 28/20nm transition is no exception. There is certainly a benefit to moving from 40nm to 28nm. The  availability of high-k/metal gate technology offers quite a few advantages in terms of power reduction... » read more

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