RISC-V: More Than a Core


The open-source RISC-V instruction set architecture (ISA) is attracting a lot of attention across the semiconductor industry, but its long-term success will depend on levels of cooperation never seen before in the semiconductor industry. The big question now is how committed the industry is to RISC-V's success. The real value that RISC-V brings is the promise of an ecosystem and the opportun... » read more

Week in Review: IoT, Security, Auto


Deals Dialog Semiconductor made a blockbuster deal with Apple – the chip company will license power management technologies and transfer some assets to Apple, which will use them in their internal chip research and development. More than 300 Dialog employees, mostly engineers, will join Apple, which will pay $300 million in cash for the transaction and prepay another $300 million for Dialog ... » read more

Week In Review: Design, Low Power


Deals AI startup Enflame (Suiyuan) Technology purchased multiple licenses of Arteris IP's FlexNoC interconnect IP for use as the on-chip communications backbone of its AI training chips for use in cloud datacenters. Enflame cited easy creation of regular topologies used in AI chips and the ability to take advantage of HBM2 memories. Phison, a maker of NAND flash controller ICs, inked�... » read more

Re-using Common Simulation Set-Up Processes To Speed Regression


Functional verification of SoCs always has some kind of set up process. For complex SoCs, at least, this initial set up phase often consumes from 20 to 90% of each test’s total simulation time. And thousands of tests are run in the verification of a design. This set up phase could be either executing the exact same sequence of simulation steps, or programming the design to reach the same i... » read more

Power Delivery Affecting Performance At 7nm


Complex interactions and dependencies at 7nm and beyond can create unexpected performance drops in chips that cannot always be caught by signoff tools. This isn't for lack of effort. The amount of time spent trying to determine if an advanced-node chip will work after it is fabricated has been rising steadily for several process nodes. Additional design rules handle everything from variation... » read more

Power Issues Grow For Cloud Chips


Performance levels in traditional or hyperscale data centers are being limited by power and heat caused by an increasing number of processors, memory, disk and operating systems within servers. The problem is so complex and intertwined, though, that solving it requires a series of steps that hopefully add up to a significant reduction across a system. But at 7nm and below, predicting exactly... » read more

Boosting Regression Throughput By Reusing Setup Phase Simulation


This paper discusses how to write a design so the common initial setup phase simulation is done once and then used as a foundation to run different tests later on, including the ability to change test stimulus to simulate different test behaviors. It also discusses what type of designs are appropriate for this methodology and what a designer can do to make his/her design suitable for it. Also c... » read more

Blog Review: Oct. 10


In a video, Cadence's Megha Daga dives into sparsity in neural networks and how it affects bandwidth, performance, and power efficiency. In a video, Mentor's Colin Walls takes a look at efficient embedded code, and why that means different things at different times. Synopsys' Eric Huang argues that in the realm of video standards, HDMI, DisplayPort, and USB Type-C are set to continue comp... » read more

Improving In-System Test With Tessent VersaPoint Test Point Technology


This paper describes a new versatile test point technology called VersaPoint, which has been developed specifically to work with designs implementing mixed EDT/LBIST methodologies to reduce EDT pattern counts and improve Logic BIST (LBIST) test coverage. VersaPoint test points can reduce compressed pattern counts 2X to 4X beyond compression alone and improve LBIST test coverage beyond what is p... » read more

So Many Waivers Hiding Issues


Semiconductor Engineering sat down to discuss problems associated with domain crossings with Alex Gnusin, design verification technologist for Aldec; Pete Hardee, director, product management for Cadence; Joe Hupcey, product manager and verification product technologist for Mentor, a Siemens Business; Sven Beyer, product manager design verification for OneSpin; and Godwin Maben, applications en... » read more

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