New Ways To Optimize Machine Learning


As more designers employ machine learning (ML) in their systems, they’re moving from simply getting the application to work to optimizing the power and performance of their implementations. Some techniques are available today. Others will take time to percolate through the design flow and tools before they become readily available to mainstream designers. Any new technology follows a basic... » read more

Blog Review: April 1


Rambus' Steven Woo takes an in-depth look at on-chip memory for high performance AI applications and explores some of the primary differences between HBM and GDDR6. Synopsys' Taylor Armerding warns of the risks of legacy vulnerabilities, where software has problems that were never fixed then forgotten about or never discovered in the first place, and key steps for finding and addressing them... » read more

Solving the E/E Dilemma of Electric And Autonomous Vehicles


As automotive manufacturers and suppliers develop advanced technologies to realize the trends of autonomy, connectivity, electrification, and shared mobility, they are encountering a number of dilemmas as each trend drives different aspects of vehicle development. This paper will focus on the E/E design challenges created by electric and autonomous vehicles, and describe a multi-domain architec... » read more

Week In Review: Design, Low Power


Tools & IP Synopsys debuted VIP and a UVM source code test suite for IP supporting Ethernet 800G. The VIP supports DesignWare 56G Ethernet, 112G Ethernet, and 112G USR/XSR PHYs for FinFET processes, which can be integrated for 800G implementations based on 8 lane x 100 Gb/s technology. The VIP can switch speed configurations dynamically at run time and includes a customizable set of frame ... » read more

What’s Changing, What Isn’t


The global pandemic is creating economic chaos on a global scale. The big question now is when the coronavirus is brought under control, and just how long its effects will extend beyond the current health crisis. For the semiconductor industry, which has weathered many long and deep financial swings, this one at least is finite. When the virus stops spreading, or when treatments are availabl... » read more

Why It’s So Hard To Create New Processors


The introduction, and initial success, of the RISC-V processor ISA has reignited interest in the design of custom processors, but the industry is now grappling with how to verify them. The expertise and tools that were once in the market have been consolidated into the hands of the few companies that have been shipping processor chips or IP cores over the past 20 years. Verification of a pro... » read more

EDA In The Cloud


Interest in the use of third-party public clouds in conjunction with electronic design automation (EDA) applications has never been higher. Back in February, Ed Sperling and I did a video interview (embedded below) to discuss EDA and cloud computing. This article follows up on that interview, providing some additional insight into why and how the integrated circuit (IC) industry reached this po... » read more

Reducing IR And EM Issues With Automated Via Insertion


IR drop and EM issues are significant performance and reliability detractors at advanced nodes. Adding vias is the most effective means of correction, but traditional custom scripts are difficult and time-consuming, and do not guarantee correct-by-construction vias. The Calibre YieldEnhancer PowerVia utility uses manufacturing requirements to perform automated insertion of DRC/LVS-clean vias. R... » read more

Blog Review: March 25


Rambus' Steven Woo checks out common memory systems that are used in the highest performance AI applications and points to the differences between on-chip memory, HBM, and GDDR. Mentor's Colin Walls considers whether software for embedded systems should be delivered as a binary library or source code and warns of some key potential issues when requesting source code. A Synopsys writer poi... » read more

Week In Review: Auto, Security, Pervasive Computing


National Instruments is offering free online training courses to anyone anywhere, until the end of April to help support the engineering community during COVID-19 crisis. Some instructor-led virtual training is available at reduced cost. NIWeek has been postponed this year until August 3-5, 2020. Click here for more news about how the semiconductor industry is handling COVID-19. AI, machi... » read more

← Older posts Newer posts →