Who Does Processor Validation?


Defining what a processor is, and what it is supposed to do, is not always as easy as it sounds. In fact, companies are struggling with the implications of hundreds of heterogenous processing elements crammed into a single chip or package. Companies have extensive verification methodologies, but not for validation. Verification is a process of ensuring that an implementation matches a specif... » read more

Verification And Validation Of Automotive Safety Element Out Of Context


With the increased use of electronics and software in the automotive systems, there are strict requirements for complex functions to perform safely and avoid causing damages to life and property in case of a failure. With the technology getting more complex, there are increasing risks from systematic failures and random hardware failures that need to be considered within the scope of functional... » read more

Traceability, Unfamiliar But Critical


Many understand that traceability is a popular concept. Still, understanding traceability in detail is more challenging, especially in how it connects to familiar objectives in the semiconductor design space. A simple way to understand is this: When a customer (call them C) asks a semiconductor supplier (call them S) to build a device to meet a system objective, they provide S with specificatio... » read more

NeuroSim Simulator for Compute-in-Memory Hardware Accelerator: Validation and Benchmark


Abstract:   "Compute-in-memory (CIM) is an attractive solution to process the extensive workloads of multiply-and-accumulate (MAC) operations in deep neural network (DNN) hardware accelerators. A simulator with options of various mainstream and emerging memory technologies, architectures, and networks can be a great convenience for fast early-stage design space exploration of CIM hardw... » read more

Netlist Decompilation Workflow for Recovered Design Verification, Validation, and Assurance


Abstract: "Over the last few decades, the cost and difficulty of producing integrated circuits at ever shrinking node sizes has vastly increased, resulting in the manufacturing sector moving overseas. Using offshore foundries for chip fabrication, however, introduces new vulnerabilities into the design flow since there is little to no observability into the manufacturing process. At the same ... » read more

FPGA Prototyping: Supersizing Scale And Performance


Given the cost of re-spinning a system-on-chip (SoC), semiconductor companies have always looked for ways to verify and validate the SoC before tape-out. Prototyping using field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) became a key methodology as part of this pre-silicon verification and validation effort. Click here to read more. » read more

Advancing IC And Systems Design With The Digital Twin


As many of you may have seen, we’ve passed a major milestone since Siemens announced its intent to acquire Mentor Graphics four years ago. As of January 1, 2021, “Mentor, a Siemens business” has become “Siemens EDA” and remains a segment of the larger Siemens Digital Industries Software organization. Siemens is bringing together one of the world’s most comprehensive EDA portfolios w... » read more

Confusion Persists In Verification Terms


I find it amazing that an area of technology that attempts to show, beyond a reasonable doubt, that a design will work before it is constructed can be so bad at getting some basic things right. I am talking about verification terminology. I have been in this industry for over 40 years and it is not improving. In fact, it is getting worse. The number of calls I have with people where they hav... » read more

Remotely Performing IC Validation


One of the key stages in designing any chip is the testing you do when you get the first silicon back. This is where you finally see the results of all your careful work and determine whether the chip is performing as designed, and as simulation told you it would. This is known as IC validation. The focus of validation is on functional test – checking that the chip in silicon meets the origin... » read more

Timing Closure At 7/5nm


Mansour Amirfathi, director of application engineering at Synopsys, examines how to determine if assumptions about design are correct, how many cycles are needed for a particular operation and why this is so complicated, and what happens if signals get out of phase. » read more

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