Audio Subsystems For Efficient SoC Integration


Implementing advanced audio functionality in a system-on-chip (SoC) involves integrating a range of hardware and software components, including an audio processor, audio peripherals, software drivers, and audio processing software. In this white paper, we discuss the requirements for audio solutions for processing of high-definition (HD) multi-channel audio and detail the challenges involved in... » read more

Technology Crossover Ahead


The attention showered upon NVM Express these days by both Synopsys (verification IP) and Cadence (subsystem) is significant. It’s the first significant opening in the enterprise computing space to emerge in years, and this is a market in which efficiency and performance are both measured and fully recognized. While SoC developers in the mobile space continue to develop power-management ca... » read more

Traversing The Abstraction Landscape


By Ann Steffora Mutschler Back in the early days of semiconductor design engineers could count the number of transistors on their chip with their own two eyes. They designed and worked at the same level of design abstraction when doing the timing analysis. Tools were SPICE-like, maybe abstracted with slightly simpler timing models than the SPICE-level transistor models. Thanks to Moore’... » read more

Mixed-Signal Integration Drives Platform Chips


Not only are there low-power challenges with just about every design today, there are also very interesting issues concerning integration of mixed-signal onto chips. As chips are get bigger and more costly to develop, many companies are turning to platform chips that can be used in a smartphone and in a tablet with slightly different twists in the functionality of that platform chip because ... » read more

Virtual Prototyping Rocks


By Nithya Ruff Achim Nohl was taking a well-deserved vacation last week and asked me to be his guest blogger. To many of you who are regular readers of Achim’s blog, I am new to Synopsys and joined only a few weeks ago to manage the Virtual Prototyping product. I came from Wind River where I managed Embedded Linux product marketing. Having come from 20+ years of managing software of all kind... » read more

Gap Vs. Gap


By Ed Sperling Among tools vendors it’s been standard practice to listen closely to customers but not deliver everything they ask for—or at least not always on the customers’ timetable. This strategy has worked well enough for both sides in the past, but at 20nm and in stacked die configurations, the level of tension between these two worlds is increasing, and the gaps in the tool cha... » read more

From Cryptic Error Messages To Contradictory Commands


By Ann Steffora Mutschler For the past 30 years, semiconductor designers have increasingly relied on automated CAD tools to complete their projects. Over time, these tools have indeed improved from a functionality perspective, but sometimes usability has not kept up with users’ needs. Depending on which tools and what type of use, some tools are easier to use than others, according to Mik... » read more

Boosting Yield With Layout Awareness


By Ann Steffora Mutschler Yield. Just the word can make many engineers cringe and hide in their cubicles—especially with manufacturing problems and excessive power during test increasing causing failures. But the combination of physical data with diagnostics engines may be the light at the end of the tunnel, allowing for easier pinpointing of defects. There are many reasons why a chip fai... » read more

High-End Audio Made Easy: The Software Story


Audio requirements are soaring. Whereas audio used to be done in a few spare cycles of the main CPU, decoding today’s Blu-ray Disc 24-bit, 192 kHz high-definition audio streams, or post-processing 9.1 channel Pro Logic IIz streams, requires significant performance. An obvious solution is to offload the processing to one or more dedicated audio digital signal processors (DSPs) such as the Desi... » read more

Betting On Subsystems


By Ed Sperling One of the consistent trends among successful companies, particularly in well-established industries, is that over time labor becomes specialized. No one can do everything well, and the more complex the systems the more pieces have to be outsourced. This creates immediate benefits for companies putting together the overall systems. They can focus on designs and doing what the... » read more

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