Gate-Level Simulation Methodology


The increase in design sizes and the complexity of timing checks at 40nm technology nodes and below is responsible for longer run times, high memory requirements, and the need for a growing set of gate-level simulation (GLS) applications including design for test (DFT) and low- power considerations. As a result, in order to complete the verification requirements on time, it becomes extr... » read more

From Simulation To Emulation


This paper introduces an acceleration-ready UVM framework and explains why it is needed, how to create it, and what its benefits are. By following the principles presented here, users will be able to write block-level UVM environments that can be reused directly in emulation. This approach has provided remarkable results in various customer environments, yielding a 50 to 5000X performance gain ... » read more

IP Verification Challenges


At the Design Automation Conference this year, the Designer and IP tracks were the stars of the show in many ways. These sessions catered to industry rather than academia and provided engineers with information they could directly use in their jobs. Many of the sessions were filled to capacity and Anne Cirkel, general chair for the 52nd DAC, was enthusiastic about the growing success of these t... » read more

Accelerate SoC Simulation Time Of Newer Generation FPGAs


Comprehensive verification that can be provided by HDL simulators is good, but not ideal. What is necessary is a faster, safer, and more thorough verification environment that combines the robustness of an HDL simulator with the speed of FPGA prototyping boards. The goal is to put together the power of these two verification methodologies into one platform. To read more, click here. » read more

Executive Insight: Wally Rhines


Wally Rhines, chairman and CEO of Mentor Graphics, sat down with Semiconductor Engineering to talk about what's changing across a wide swath of the industry, where the new opportunities will be, when security will become a real opportunity for EDA, and why Moore's Law will die but progress will continue forever. SE: Looking back over the past year, what's changed and where are the possible r... » read more

EDA’s Clouded Future


There was a time, not that long ago, when chip design and EDA tools consumed some of the largest data centers with tens of thousands of machines and single datasets that consumed more than a hard disk could hold. The existing IT capabilities of the times were stretched to their limits. But while design sizes grew, other aspects of the flow did not develop as fast. “This has been driven by ... » read more

Wrong Verification Revolution Offered


SoC design traditionally has been an ad-hoc process, with implementation occurring at the register transfer level. This is where verification starts, and after the blocks have been verified, it becomes an iterative process of integration and verification that continues until the complete system has been assembled. But today, this methodology has at least two major problems, which were addres... » read more

Towards A Metric To Measure Verification Computing Efficiency


Thinking back about DAC 2015 in San Francisco earlier this month, I am happy that at least some of my predictions came true—there was clearly a trend towards making verification smarter. However, one thing struck me while hearing all the discussions on connecting engines is what Jim Hogan called the continuum of verification engines (COVE)—and what we at Cadence call the system development ... » read more

Power Verification Now Required


Today’s verification tasks may seem daunting — and much of it is — but all of it is absolutely necessary to make sure chips operate properly with a larger system. Throw power into the mix and the challenges mount. The good news is that there is no shortage of tools and methodologies to help with these tasks. The bad news is that even the best tools won’t make the challenges disappear... » read more

Toward Smarter Design Automation


In less than two weeks, the EDA industry will convene for its biggest conference of the year, the Design Automation Conference, again in San Francisco. Last year, I “came clean” with a post called “Confessions Of An ESL-Aholic,” pointing out that beyond high-level synthesis, a significant shift towards a more abstract design description than RTL has not yet happened and that a lot of th... » read more

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