The Week In Review: Design


Tools Open-Silicon uncorked a 28Gbps SerDes evaluation platform, complete with board, test chip and characterization data, which it says will speed up and simplify development of chips for 100G networks. The chip utilizes PHY IP from Semtech. IP Synopsys rolled out MIPI C-PHY verification IP that utilizes a three-phase coding technique for faster camera, display and SoC interfaces. http://... » read more

EDA Vendors Prepare For 7nm


It’s not too early to begin looking at design tools for the 7nm, even though the node is not expected to be production-ready until later this decade. While still in the early stages, foundries already in development with leading EDA companies, even though the water remains murky at this point. “7nm right now is in early definition, so we don't know exactly what it will be,” observed... » read more

Changing The IP Supplier Paradigm


Semiconductor Engineering sat down with Rich Wawrzyniak, senior market analyst for ASIC and SoC at Semico Research; John Koeter, vice president of marketing for the Solutions Group at [getentity id="22035" e_name="Synopsys"]; Mike Gianfagna, vice president of marketing for [getentity id="22242" e_name="eSilicon"]; Peter McGuinness, director of technology marketing at [getentity id="22709" e_nam... » read more

Blog Review: Sept. 17


Ansys’ Benoit Debbaut looks at the Pitch drop experiment, which was started in 1927 (yes, that date is correct) to observe the excruciatingly slow movement of a thick liquid weighted down by gravity. Since inception, a total of nine drops have fallen. So when will the tenth drop fall? Place your bets...when you get around to it. Mentor’s Matthew Ballance highlights an interesting challe... » read more

More Than Moore


Semiconductor Engineering sat down to discuss the value of feature shrinks and what comes next with Steve Eplett, design technology and automation manager at [getentity id="22664" e_name="Open-Silicon"]; Patrick Soheili, vice president and general manager of IP Solutions at [getentity id="22242" e_name="eSilicon"]; Brandon Wang, engineering group director at [getentity id="22032" e_name="Cadenc... » read more

How Reliable Is Your IP?


Almost everyone who has bought a new smartphone, car, home electronics device or appliance either has experienced technical glitches that require a replacement or repair, or they know someone who has experienced these problems. The good news is that only a very small fraction of the electronic glitches or failures can be contributed to hardware design. Most of it is due to manufacturing vari... » read more

Making Chips Run Faster


For all the talk about low power, the real focus of most chipmakers is still performance. The reality is that OEMs might be willing to sacrifice increasing performance for longer battery life, but they will rarely lower performance to reach that goal. This is more obvious for some applications than others. A machine monitor probably isn’t the place where performance will make much of a dif... » read more

Design For IoT


In our already mind-bogglingly connected world where you can control your BMW with a Samsung smartwatch or monitor and pay your parking meter with a credit card on your smartphone, the semiconductor design community is mulling over the opportunities from design kits to embedded software as far as the best ways to equip design teams for the [getkc id="76" comment="Internet of Things"] (IoT) era.... » read more

Are We Headed For A Power Wall?


A common theme in semiconductor design circles today are the many power reduction techniques available to engineers to bring the power down in their devices. While power gating and other techniques are effective today, it does lead to questions about how long they will continue providing a benefit. Anand Iyer, director of product marketing for [getentity id="22016" e_name="Calypto"], believe... » read more

IoT Brings Low Power To Forefront


Low power has become a primary design consideration over the past decade, driven by consumer portable devices packing in greater amounts of processing power and sophisticated communications, while at the same time providing extended battery life even though developments in battery technology have advanced little in the same timeframe. But the [getkc id="76" comment="Internet of Things"] (IoT) w... » read more

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