Changes In The Supply Chain


Runaway complexity in design, implementation, verification and manufacturing is being mirrored across an increasingly complex supply chain. Now the question is what to do about it. Complexity is being driven by the continued shrinking of feature sizes and the clamor for more functionality to leverage the real estate that becomes available with each new process node. But the increased density... » read more

Managing Functional Verification Projects


The adoption of advanced verification languages and methodologies requires evolution of project management techniques in addition to the change in engineering practices. Managers must be able to assess and manage key project elements such as team expertise, verification methodology, verification IP (VIP) selection and environment setup to successfully deploy high-level verification environments... » read more

ESL Challenges


System-Level Design talks about the challenges of ESL with Cadence's Ran Avinun, Synopsys' Johannes Stahl, Mentor Graphics' Thomas Bollaert and Forte Design Systems' Brett Cline.   [youtube vid=HftMM71Epqo] » read more

Reducing The Drama In DFM


By Ann Steffora Mutschler For reducing cycle time of DFM checks prior to manufacturing, pattern matching is a topic of great excitement as of the past few manufacturing nodes. The idea behind the technology is that there are certain patterns in the physical layout of the chip, which unless they are addressed, won’t come out right. That’s what causes the drama, observed Saleem Haider, se... » read more

It’s Transition Time Again


By Ed Sperling After decades of shrinking features, developing new software on every level and engineering huge improvements in energy efficiency and performance, the semiconductor industry has reached a crossroads. To get to the next level will require massive improvements on all fronts, but not all consumers will be willing to pay for them. For example, if a battery lasts an entire day f... » read more

Embedded Power Management Challenges Grow


By Ann Steffora Mutschler Power management always has been, and will continue to be, a big issue with electronic devices. But when it comes to power management in embedded systems—controlling battery power in a smartphone, an industrial automation or automotive application, among a myriad of other options—the approaches come with different variables. For example, deeply embedded s... » read more

First Silicon At 14nm


By Ed Sperling The first 14nm test chips are beginning to roll out the door from foundries, and companies are beginning to trumpet their success. But before anyone pops the champagne corks, there are some caveats. First of all, what most people are billing as 14nm chips are actually mostly 20nm. They are readily willing to concede that point, settling on 16nm, but the reality is that it’s... » read more

All Things To All Customers


By Ann Steffora Mutschler Low-Power High-Performance Engineering recently spoke with Suresh Menon, VP of systems development at Lattice Semiconductor, about the challenges of directing the development of power-sensitive FPGAs from architectural decisions to identifying the target applications. What follows are excerpts of that discussion. LPHP: When you look at the products that Lattic... » read more

CES 2013: Signs Of Things To Come


By Cary Chin It’s always fun to see the latest gadgets introduced at the Consumer Electronics Show, held last week in Las Vegas. This year, two in particular stuck in my mind. First, in what is clearly still a fledgling industry (not necessarily for technology reasons), Audi demonstrated its self-driving car, with the added twist that you could “call” your car. It remotely started up, ma... » read more

Designing With FinFETs: The Opportunities And The Challenges


With the help of double-patterning and other advanced lithography techniques, CMOS technology continues to scale to 20-nanometer (nm) and beyond. Yet, because of their superior attributes, FinFETs are replacing planar CMOS technology as the device technology of choice at these advanced nodes. In particular, FinFETs demonstrate better results in the areas of performance, leakage and dynamic powe... » read more

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