Simulation Replay Tackles Key Verification Challenges


Simulation lies at the heart of both verification and pre-silicon validation for every semiconductor development project. Finding functional or power problems in the bringup lab is much too late, leading to very expensive chip turns. Thorough simulation before tapeout, coupled with comprehensive coverage metrics, is the only way to avoid surprises in silicon. However, the enormous size and comp... » read more

Is PPA Relevant Today?


The optimization of power, performance, and area (PPA) has been at the core of chip design since the dawn of EDA, but these metrics are becoming less valuable without the context of how and where these chips will be used. Unlike in the past, however, that context now comes from factors outside of hardware development. And while PPA still serves as a useful proxy for many parts of the hardwar... » read more

Higher Density, More Data Create New Bottlenecks In AI Chips


Data movement is becoming a bigger problem at advanced nodes and in advanced packaging due to denser circuitry, more physical effects that can affect the integrity of signals or the devices themselves, and a significant increase in data from AI and machine learning. Just shrinking features in a design is no longer sufficient, given the scaling mismatch between SRAM-based L1 cache and digital... » read more

Blog Review: Sept. 11


Cadence's Neha Joshi introduces the IEEE 1801 standard, also known as UPF (Unified Power Format), which offers a uniform framework for defining power domains, power states, and power intent to ensure consistency across diverse tools and phases of the design process. Siemens' John McMillan warns that known good die may not behave the same in 3D-ICs as they do standalone and suggests that mult... » read more

Taking Data Center Serviceability To The Next Level


It is no secret that Artificial Intelligence (AI) workloads are driving an exponential growth in the scale of supercomputers and data centers. Training the latest LLM (Large Language Model), for instance, typically requires thousands of specialized processing cores running at full speed. As these models get more advanced with each generation, they need additional compute performance to absorb a... » read more

Promises and Perils of Parallel Test


Testing multiple devices at the same time is not providing the equivalent reduction in overall test time due to a combination of test execution issues, the complexity of the devices being tested, and the complex tradeoffs required for parallelism. Parallel testing is now the norm — from full wafer probe DRAM testing with thousands of dies to two-site testing for complex, high-performance c... » read more

Standardizing Defect Coverage In Analog/Mixed Signal Test


A newly drafted IEEE standard will bring more consistency to defect metrics in analog/mixed (AMS) designs, a long-overdue step that has become too difficult to ignore in the costly heterogeneous assemblies being deployed inside of data centers and mobile devices. Standardizing analog is no simple feat due to the legacy approach to AMS design, and this is not the first attempt at improving te... » read more

Chip Industry Week In Review


Concerns mount on the use of American-manufactured semiconductors in Russian weapons, with Analog Devices, AMD, Intel and TI set to testify next week before the U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. Also, U.S. and other government agencies issued a joint advisory and more details about ongoing Russian military cyberattacks, espionage, and sabotage. The U.S. Commerce Departmen... » read more

Combining Silicon Data Capture And Edge Processing Offers A Promising Solution For Automotive OEMs


By Lorin Kennedy and Jasmin Mulaosmanovic In the world of electric (EV) and software-defined vehicles (SDV), a key challenge and opportunity besets original equipment manufacturers (OEM): that of effectively harnessing in-vehicle and silicon data to improve user experience and quite literally drive business benefits. While collecting telemetry data is straightforward enough, the difficulty l... » read more

Photonics Could Reduce The Cost Of Lidar


Using light to move data over shorter distances is becoming more common, both because there is much more data to move around and because photons are faster and cooler than electrons. Using optical fiber for mission-critical communication is already well established. It has been the preferred PHY for long-haul communications for decades because it doesn’t suffer from the attenuation losses ... » read more

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