What Goes Wrong With IP


Semiconductor Engineering sat down to talk about the future of IP with Rob Aitken, R&D fellow at [getentity id="22186" comment="ARM"]; Mike Gianfagna, vice president of marketing at [getentity id="22242" e_name="eSilicon"]; Judd Heape, vice president of product applications at Apical; and Bernard Murphy, an independent industry consultant. What follows are excerpts of that discussion, which... » read more

6 Key Benefits Of Thermal Testing


This whitepaper discusses the advantages of transient thermal test methods for IC package and thermal interface material (TIM) thermal characterization testing vs steady state methods. These methods assist verification of thermal performance for reliability, support package development & manufacturing decision making, and ensure accurate data sheet values used for selection by engineers. ... » read more

2.5D Creeps Into SoC Designs


A decade ago top chipmakers predicted that the next frontier for SoC architectures would be the z axis, adding a third dimension to improve throughput and performance, reduce congestion around memories, and reduce the amount of energy needed to drive signals. The obvious market for this was applications processors for mobile devices, and the first companies to jump on the stacked die bandwag... » read more

Lazy Or Bored: The Outcome Might Be The Same


I recently talked to an engineering manager responsible for system validation at a major automotive company. The topic was the continuous growth of software content and how to reach the right software quality. He explained that for the part he is responsible for, most software is created by his suppliers. But because the carmaker is ultimately held responsible for any issue with the car, he has... » read more

Tech Talk: Power Tools


At 200 million gates, using standard tools for power will add weeks to the semiconductor design process. Vijay Chobisa, product marketing manager at Mentor Graphics, talks with Semiconductor Engineering about where the problems are and how to solve them. [youtube vid=w7yEdtaIb9A] » read more

EDT Test Points


Embedded test compression was commercially introduced over a decade ago and has scaled to well beyond the 100X range envisioned when it was first introduced. However, growing gate counts enabled by new technology nodes as well as new fault models targeting defects within standard cells are driving the need for even greater compression levels. This paper describes an exciting new technology, cal... » read more

Blog Review: Dec. 31


Mentor's J. VanDomelen zeroes in on the two most interesting discoveries from the Philae comet landing. So what was that "eerie cyclical clicking" sound? Synopsys' Ray Varghese digs into basic coherent transaction testing for AXI/ACE compliant interconnects. You might want to put on another pot of coffee. Cadence's Brian Fuller offers some deep insights into synthesis, verification and te... » read more

How To Test IoT Devices


At a recent event, test experts said the IC industry needs a new paradigm in testing chips for the [getkc id="76" comment="Internet of Things"] (IoT). The message was fairly simple to interpret. Existing automatic test equipment (ATE) is well suited to test today’s digital, analog, and mixed-signal chips, though it may be ill-equipped or too expensive to test IoT-based devices. But wha... » read more

Balancing The Cost Of Test


As semiconductor devices became larger and more complex, the cost of [getkc id="174" kc_name="test"] increased. Testers were large pieces of capital equipment designed to execute functional vectors at-speed and the technology being used had to keep up with increasing demands placed on them. Because of this, the cost of test did not decrease in the way that other high-tech equipment did. Around ... » 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

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