A New Vision For Memory Chip Design And Verification


Discrete memory chips are arguably the most visible reminder of the opportunities and challenges for advanced semiconductor design. They are manufactured in huge quantities, becoming key drivers for new technology nodes and new fabrication processes. Price fluctuations have a major impact on the financial health of the electronics industry, and any shortages can shut down the manufacturing line... » read more

‘Hug The Debug’ – Before It’s Too Late


Though the term “shift-left” originated in the software industry, its importance is often cited in the hardware (semiconductor) industry where the end-product (chip) costs are skyrocketing. The increase in cost is driven by a global chip shortage, especially in the automotive industry. Manufacturing a robust chip is a long, iterative process that may require many re-spins. Shift-left refers... » read more

Shifting Left: Early Multi Physics Analysis For STCO


With the economics of transistor scaling no longer universally applicable, the industry is turning to innovative packaging technologies to support system scaling demands and achieve lower system cost. This has led to the emergence of a system technology co-optimization (STCO) approach, in which an SoC is disaggregated into smaller modules (also known as chiplets) that can be asynchronously desi... » read more

Customer-Developed, Hyper-Convergent Design Flows Are Now Possible


We all know the days of sequential, compartmentalized chip design are over. In advanced technology nodes, placement impacts performance, performance impacts power, and routing impacts everything. The way to manage these challenges is to interleave design tasks. For example, provide information on late-stage routing to early-stage synthesis tools to improve convergence. This technique is commonl... » read more

DFT For SoCs Is Last, First, And Everywhere In Between


Back in the dawn of time, IC test was the last task in the design flow. First, you designed the chip and then you wrote the functional test program to verify it performed as expected after manufacturing. Without much effort, some portion of the functional test program was often reused as the manufacturing test to determine that the silicon was defect-free. Fast forward to today and things ha... » read more

Silo Busting In The Design Flow


An increasing number of dependencies in system design are forcing companies, people, tools, and flows to become more collaborative. Design and EDA companies must adapt to this new reality because it has become impossible for anyone to do it all by themselves. Moreover, what happens in manufacturing and packaging needs to be considered up front, and what gets designed in the design phase may ... » read more

Early And Fine Virtual Binning


Not all chips are created equal, and this is viewed as both a blessing and a curse by semiconductor makers. On one hand, chips can be screened for certain attributes, and some of the chips can be sold for higher prices than others. On the other hand, variations in the production process cause silicon performance to greatly differ, leaving chip makers with a wide and somewhat unpredictable distr... » read more

The Evolution Of Digital Twins


Digital twins are starting to make inroads earlier in the chip design flow, allowing design teams to develop more effective models. But they also are adding new challenges in maintaining those models throughout a chip's lifecycle. Until a couple of years ago, few people in the semiconductor industry had even heard the term "digital twin." Then, suddenly, it was everywhere, causing confusion ... » read more

Machine Learning Enabled Root Cause Analysis For Low Power Verification


By Himanshu Bhatt and Susantha Wijesekara Next-generation SoCs with advanced graphics, computing and artificial intelligence capabilities are posing unforeseen challenges in verification. Designers and verification engineers using static verification technologies for low power often see many violations in the initial stages. Efficient debugging and determining root cause is a real issue and ... » read more

Shift Left Verification With Comprehensive Lint Signoff


With soaring complexity and continuously increasing chip sizes, achieving efficient and predictable design closure has become a prominent challenge among designers today. Demand for a faster time to market is forcing designers to find ways to shorten design cycles with accurate, efficient, one-time RTL to silicon. To meet these requirements designers are looking to implement early ”shift left... » read more

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