Formal Is Set To Overtake Simulation


There has been a significant psychology change in the area of formal verification over the past couple of years. It’s no longer considered a fringe technology, and it’s no longer considered difficult to use. In fact, it has become a necessary part of the verification process. Semiconductor Engineering sat down with a panel of experts to find out what caused this change and what more we c... » read more

Blog Review: March 12


Arteris’ Kurt Shuler is sounding the alarm bell for the semiconductor industry. He observes that system OEMs are hiring their own chip engineers. Well, that should wake up someone. Danger Will Robinson. Mentor’s Colin Walls points to a festering debate in the embedded software world about priorities and openness to learning new tools and approaches. Embedded software developers are a rat... » read more

Does It Take A Catastrophe?


What makes a company search for new verification methods and tools? Sometimes organizations change, proactively, because they are wise and want to avoid problems; but sadly, more often it is a catastrophe that forces change. This was the case with a large U.S. supplier of safety-critical and high-reliability ICs. After a failed chip, it finally moved from simply verifying the analog and digi... » read more

2014 Accellera Standards Are Built on Powerful Shoulders


By Adam Sherer Looking out at the fresh snow coating the landscape here in Buffalo, it’s tempting to look toward 2014 and focus only on the fresh and new. However, if I’ve learned anything about this city from the day I arrived here as a freshman EE in 1984, it’s that you don’t bury your foundation. Instead, you recognize it as your greatest strength, the powerful shoulders upon whic... » read more

The Problem With EDA Standards


In the EDA industry, does standard mean the same as it does in most industries? The Free Dictionary defines it as: Something, such as a practice or a product, that is widely recognized or employed, especially because of its excellence. In the EDA industry, a standards body is the place where EDA companies and customers come together to try and bring about convergence, often in a new or emerging... » read more

Start Verification Early To Avoid Pitfalls Later


It is well understood – at least from a theoretical point of view – that design verification should start as early as possible. The reality is that that doesn’t always happen for a variety of reasons such as enormous time to market pressure, too many new features to add, lack of foresight and discipline among other things. But progress is being made. Harry Foster, chief scientist for v... » read more

Unifying Hardware-Assisted Verification And Validation Using UVM And Emulation


Successful approaches to improve verification productivity are to increase the speed of verification and begin validating software/hardware integration very early in the design process. Historically, verification and validation platforms have been developed as separate flows, preventing reuse of modules and methods between the two. As a consequence, various customized verification and validatio... » read more

Unifying Hardware-Assisted Verification And Validation Using UVM And Emulation


Successful approaches to improve verification productivity are to increase the speed of verification and begin validating software/hardware integration very early in the design process. Historically, verification and validation platforms have been developed as separate flows, preventing reuse of modules and methods between the two. As a consequence, various customized verification and validatio... » read more

Experts At The Table: SoC Prototyping


By Ann Steffora Mutschler System-Level Design sat down to discuss SoC prototyping with Hillel Miller, pre-silicon verification/emulation manager at Freescale Semiconductor; Frank Schirrmeister, group director, product marketing, system development suite at Cadence; and Mick Posner, director of product marketing at Synopsys. What follows are excerpts of that conversation. SLD: Is it possib... » read more

The New Verification Landscape


By Ann Steffora Mutschler Verification technologies and tools have never been more sophisticated. But putting together a methodology is more than just putting tools together. It starts with trying to get a handle on the complexity, knowing what to test, how to test and when. “UVM was standardized and people have been working to adopt that which has been generally a positive,” said Steve Ba... » read more

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