RISC-V: More Than a Core


The open-source RISC-V instruction set architecture (ISA) is attracting a lot of attention across the semiconductor industry, but its long-term success will depend on levels of cooperation never seen before in the semiconductor industry. The big question now is how committed the industry is to RISC-V's success. The real value that RISC-V brings is the promise of an ecosystem and the opportun... » read more

Blog Review: Oct. 3


Applied's Buvna Ayyagari-Sangamalli notes that the requirements of AI are challenging the entire design ecosystem, and while new materials are necessary, so is keeping up the current pace of architecture and EDA development. Mentor's Joe Hupcey III digs into how to handle counters effectively with formal by reducing their size or replacing them with abstract models to allow formal engines to... » read more

RISC-V Inches Toward The Center


RISC-V is pushing further into the mainstream, showing up across a wide swath of designs and garnering support from a long and still-growing list of chipmakers, tools vendors, universities and foundries. In most cases it is being used as a complementary processor than a replacement for something else, but that could change in the future. What makes RISC-V particularly attractive to chipmaker... » read more

ISO26262: The Case for Embedded Analytics in Automotive (updated: V.4.0)


From advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) to a new generation of robots and medical systems, we are seeing an explosion in the development of cyber-physical systems. Because these systems use advanced software to interact with the physical world, safety is a paramount issue but one that is reflected in many industries by the use of safety standards based on a philosophy of risk assessme... » read more

Minimizing Chip Aging Effects


Aging kills semiconductors, and it is a growing problem for an increasing number of semiconductor applications—especially as they migrate to more advanced nodes. Additional analysis and prevention methods are becoming necessary for safety critical applications. While some aspects of aging can be mitigated up front, others are tied to the operation of the device. What can an engineering tea... » read more

Week In Review: Design, Low Power


Cadence teamed up with nine PCB manufacturing partners on an ecosystem to provide easier access to partners' technology files to improve PCB manufacturability. The program, DesignTrue DFM, allows for automated import of a manufacturer's latest DFM rules as well as rule checking in real time as part of the PCB layout process. The nine initial PCB manufactures supporting the program are: Bay Area... » read more

Is Software Necessary?


Hardware must be capable of running any software. While that might have been a good mantra when chips were relatively simple, it becomes an impossible verification task when dealing with SoCs that contain dozens of deeply embedded processors. When does it become necessary to use production software and what problems can that get you into? When verification targets such as power are added, it... » read more

Blog Review: Aug. 8


Cadence's Meera Collier provides a primer on the basics of quantum computing, including how quantum gates work using superpositions and how it could impact chip design. Mentor's Dennis Brophy shares a list of resources to help you get up to speed on the recently-approved Portable Test and Stimulus standard, which enables test scenarios to be run across different execution platforms. Synop... » read more

Week In Review: Design, Low Power


Arm acquired Treasure Data, a provider of enterprise data management solutions. Along with Mbed Cloud and the recent acquisition of Stream, which provides connectivity and device management, it will form the basis of Arm's new IoT management platform. Treasure Data was founded in 2011. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, although Bloomberg reported the price at $600 million. UltraSoC n... » read more

Blog Review: Aug. 1


Synopsys' Taylor Armerding explains the recent cyberattack on Singapore's largest healthcare group, SingHealth. The "well-planned" attack compromised the personal information of about a quarter of the country's population, including Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. Cadence's Paul McLellan looks at the factors that make China's automotive market much different from the rest of the world and th... » read more

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