Bridging Hardware And Software


The barriers between hardware and software design and verification are breaking down with more intricately integrated systems, bringing together different disciplines and tools. But there are lingering questions about exactly what this shift means design methodologies, team interactions, and what kind of training will be required in the future. Playing heavily into this is the fact that toda... » read more

The Early Bird Catches The Bug Using Formal


It has been suggested that formal might replace simulation, at least in some parts of the design flow. Not likely! The question is, how can formal be layered on top of simulation flows to improve coverage and schedule? The way formal is being used at the larger semiconductor companies is evolving. In many of these companies a small team of hardcore formal experts are employed across differen... » read more

System-Level Verification Tackles New Role


Wally Rhines, chairman and CEO of Mentor Graphics, gave the keynote at DVCon this year. He said that if you pull together a bunch of pre-verified IP blocks, it does not change the verification problem at the system level. That sounds like a problem. There are assumptions made that the IP blocks work to a reasonable degree, and that when performing system-level verification the focus is not a... » read more

Are Simulation’s Days Numbered?


Semiconductor Engineering sat down to discuss the limitations of simulation in more complex designs with [getperson id="11049" comment="Michael McNamara"], CEO of [getentity id="22716" comment="Adapt-IP”]; Pete Hardee, product management director at [getentity id="22032" e_name="Cadence"]; David Kelf, vice president of marketing for for [getentity id="22395" e_name="OneSpin Solutions"]; Lauro... » read more

Are Simulation’s Days Numbered?


Semiconductor Engineering sat down to discuss the limitations of simulation in more complex designs with [getperson id="11049" comment="Michael McNamara"], CEO of [getentity id="22716" comment="Adapt-IP”]; Pete Hardee, product management director at [getentity id="22032" e_name="Cadence"]; David Kelf, vice president of marketing for [getentity id="22395" e_name="OneSpin Solutions"]; Lauro Riz... » read more

A Formal Transformation


A very important change is underway in functional verification. In the past, this was an esoteric technology and one that was difficult to deploy. It was relegated to tough problems late in the verification cycle, and it was difficult to justify the ROI unless the technology actually did find some problems. But all of that has changed. Formal verification companies started to use the technology... » read more

Are Simulation’s Days Numbered?


In the latest EDAC report, the value of IP surpassed the value of CAE tools for the first time. Verification tools are an important part of establishing confidence in IP blocks and simulation has been the mainstay of that IP verification strategy. But simulation is under increasing pressure, particularly for full-chip and SoC verification, because it has failed to scale. While it still remains ... » read more

Engineering Knowledge Management


The business forces driving the need for a managed simulation environment have been with us for years and have been the impetus for the widely recognized corporate initiatives such as Total Quality Management (TQM) and Six Sigma. Engineering mantras such as “reduce cycle time” and “improve quality” translate into business objectives such as “reduce costs” and “improve the bottom l... » read more

Racing To Design Chips Faster


A shift is underway to develop chips for more narrowly defined market segments, and in much smaller production runs. Rather than focusing on shrinking features and reducing cost per transistor by the billions of units, the emphasis behind this shift is less about scale and much more about optimization for specific markets and delivering those solutions more quickly. As automotive, consumer e... » read more

Complete Systems Modeling And Simulation For Complex Product Development


As products in the marketplace incorporate more and more complexity, the product design process must keep pace to ensure safe, efficient and reliable integration of complicated systems, subsystems and components. Few products today involve a mere single physics; most encompass multidisciplinary behaviors and interactions (with subsequent, sometimes unpredictable, cause and effect). Though simul... » read more

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