Putting Design Back Into DFT


Test always has been a delicate balance between cost and quality, but there are several changes happening in the industry that might cause a significant alteration in strategy. Part one of this two part series about [getkc id="47" comment="Design for Test (DFT)"] looked at changes in areas such as automotive, where built in self-test is becoming a mandated part of the design process. This co... » read more

FPGA Prototyping Gains Ground


FPGA technology for design prototypes is making new inroads as demands increase for better integration between hardware and software. [gettech id="31071" comment="FPGA"] prototyping, also known as physical prototyping, has been supported by all of the major EDA players for some time, and it has been considered an essential tool for the largest chipmakers, along with emulation and simulation.... » read more

Blog Review: Aug. 24


Cadence's Christine Young relates a talk by IEEE president-elect Karen Bartleson, who stresses the need for technologists and policy makers to work together to shape the future of the Internet. In his latest video, Mentor's Colin Walls muses about creeping elegance in embedded software development. Synopsys' Michael Posner considers whether USB Type-C should replace the 3.5mm headphone ja... » read more

The Future Of Memory


Semiconductor Engineering sat down to discuss future memory with Frank Ferro, senior director of product management for memory and interface IP at Rambus; Marc Greenberg, director of product marketing at Synopsys; and Lisa Minwell, eSilicon's senior director of IP marketing. What follows are excerpts of that conversation. To view part 1, click here. Part 2 is here. SE: What’s the next big ... » read more

Managing Quality With Developer Desktop Analysis


Even the most seasoned developer is prone to introducing a few new bugs in new or modified code. Static analysis is a great solution to help development teams find and fix those issues. Now with Coverity’s new desktop analysis capabilities, developers can find and fix their own defects before checking their code into the source control management system – and before anyone else finds the de... » read more

Blog Review: Aug. 17


Mentor's Andrew Macleod listens in on the most pressing electrical engineering and embedded software challenges in the automotive industry today, in an IESF presentation by Paul Johnston. Many flash memory protocols have appeared, and Synopsys' Rahul Ramesh Chaudhari delves into ONFi in particular. Cadence's Paul McLellan digs into the challenges facing the development and roll out of 5G.... » read more

New Architectures, Approaches To Speed Up Chips


The need for speed is back. An explosion in the amount of data that needs to be collected and processed is driving a new wave of change in hardware, software and overall system design. After years of emphasizing power reduction, performance has re-emerged as a top concern in a variety of applications such as smarter cars, wearable devices and cloud data centers. But how to get there has cha... » read more

Back To Basics On Multi-Voltage Verification


It has been more than a decade since the paradigm of voltage-aware Booleans came about and the world of multi-voltage verification took off. We started with 3-5 island SoCs and now stare at 300+ islands on a single SoC. While we have a well-developed standard (IEEE 1801/UPF) for the expression and analysis of voltage variation, it is apt to not forget some of the basics and see how they will ca... » read more

Designing SoC Power Networks


Designing a power network for a complex SoC is becoming critical for the success of the product, but most chips are still using old techniques that are ill-suited to the latest fabrication technologies, resulting in an expensive, overdesigned product. Not only is the power network as designed too large, but this has several knock-on effects that impact area, timing and power. In the first pa... » read more

Does Power Analysis Need To Be Accurate?


The mere mention of accuracy in power analysis and optimization today can trigger a contentious discussion, even among typically reserved engineers. What is needed and where? Which tools are truly as accurate as claimed? And how much accuracy is actually needed for power analysis, [getkc id="112" kc_name="estimation"], and optimization? First of all, the accuracy required really depends o... » read more

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