Verification Effectiveness In The Face Of FPGA Complexity: The 2020 Wilson Research Group Functional Verification Study


Making informed decisions backed by good data is the key to success in highly competitive, robust markets such as FPGA design and verification. Helping our community in that endeavor is the motivation behind the worldwide Wilson Research Group Functional Verification Study. We also use that information to make sure our research and development efforts continue to deliver the solutions our cu... » read more

Interconnects In A Domain-Specific World


Moving data around is probably the least interesting aspect of system design, but it is one of three legs that defines the key performance indicators (KPI) for a system. Computation, memory, and interconnect all need to be balanced. Otherwise, resources are wasted and performance is lost. The problem is that the interconnect is rarely seen as a contributor to system functionality. It is seen... » read more

Formal Verification Experiences


Several companies have used formal verification to perform silicon bug hunting. That is one of the most advanced usages of formal verification. It is a complex process that includes incorporating multiple sources of information and managing numerous success factors concurrently. This paper will present a “spiral refinement” bug hunt methodology that captures the success factors and guides t... » read more

Finding And Fixing Design And Testbench Coding Errors On The Fly


Two things are certain in chip verification: as many bugs as possible must be found and fixed before fabrication, and this must happen as early as possible in the development process. The much-desired “shift left” in verification requires that advanced analysis and debug technologies be available to engineers from the earliest stages of the project. It is preferable that many classes of err... » read more

Systematic Methodology To Solve Reset Challenges In Automotive SoCs


Modern automotive SoCs typically contain multiple asynchronous reset signals to ensure systematic functional recovery from unexpected situations and faults. This complex reset architecture leads to a new set of problems such as possible reset domain crossing (RDC) issues. The conventional clock domain and CDC verification methodologies cannot identify such critical bugs. In this paper, we prese... » read more

How Heterogeneous ICs Are Reshaping Design Teams


Experts at the Table: Semiconductor Engineering sat down to discuss the complex interactions developing between different engineering groups as designs become more heterogeneous, with Jean-Marie Brunet, senior director for the Emulation Division at Siemens EDA; Frank Schirrmeister, senior group director for solution marketing at Cadence; Maurizio Griva, R&D Manager at Reply; and Laurent Mai... » read more

Computing Where Data Resides


Computational storage is starting to gain traction as system architects come to grips with the rising performance, energy and latency impacts of moving large amounts of data between processors and hierarchical memory and storage. According to IDC, the global datasphere will grow from 45 zettabytes in 2019 to 175 by 2025. But that data is essentially useless unless it is analyzed or some amou... » read more

Stuck In A Rut


In the DVCon panel session about open-source verification, the first part of which has been published along with this blog, you will read about a fiery debate between the panelists. This is regarding the ability of the EDA industry to innovate. On one side is the accusation that there has been no real innovation since 1988. On the other side, there have been fantastic advances have been made th... » read more

Verification In The Open Source Era


Experts at the Table: Semiconductor Engineering sat down to discuss what open source verification means today and what it should evolve into, with Jean-Marie Brunet, senior director for the Emulation Division at Siemens EDA; Ashish Darbari, CEO of Axiomise; Simon Davidmann, CEO of Imperas Software; Serge Leef, program manager in the Microsystems Technology Office at DARPA; Tao Liu, staff hardwa... » read more

Find Bugs Early: On-The-Fly Code Correction For Design And Verification Productivity


The key rule for chip design and verification is that bugs must be found and fixed as early in the development process as possible. It is often said that catching a bug at each successive project stage multiplies the cost by ten. Bugs that escape verification and make their way to silicon are very expensive and time-consuming to fix. The ideal is to catch as many types of issues as possible as ... » read more

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