Techniques To Identify Reset Metastability Due To Soft Resets


Modern SoCs are equipped with complex reset architectures to meet the requirements of high-speed interfaces with increased functionality. These complex reset architectures with multiple reset domains, ensure functional recovery from hardware failures and unexpected electronic faults. But the transmission of data across sequential elements that are reset by different asynchronous and soft reset ... » read more

Why IC Design Safety Nets Have Limits


Experts at the Table: Semiconductor Engineering sat down to discuss different responsibilities in design teams and future changes in tools with Ashish Darbari, CEO at Axiomise; Ziyad Hanna, corporate vice president R&D at Cadence; Jim Henson, ASIC verification software product manager at Siemens EDA; Dirk Seynhaeve, vice president of business development at Sigasi; Simon Davidmann, formerly... » read more

Chip Design Digs Deeper Into AI


Growing demand for blazing fast and extremely dense multi-chiplet systems are pushing chip design deeper into AI, which increasingly is viewed as the best solution for sifting through scores of possible configurations, constraints, and variables in the least amount of time. This shift has broad implications for the future of chip design. In the past, collaborations typically involved the chi... » read more

Trouble Ahead For IC Verification


Verification complexity is roughly the square of design complexity, but until recently verification success rates have remained fairly consistent. That's beginning to change. There are troubling signs that verification is collapsing under the load. The first-time success rate fell (see figure 1) in the last survey conducted by Wilson Research, on behalf of Siemens EDA, in 2022. A new survey ... » read more

A Unified Solution for End-to-End Low Power Verification


Low power designs are becoming increasingly prevalent in modern electronic systems, driven by the need for energy-efficient devices. Ensuring the correctness of these designs is paramount, as even minor errors can lead to catastrophic consequences. To achieve verification closure for low power designs, a combination of static verification, dynamic simulation-based verification, formal verificat... » read more

Reset Domain Crossing Verification


By Reetika and Sulabh Kumar Khare To meet low-power and high-performance requirements, system on chip (SoC) designs are equipped with several asynchronous and soft reset signals. These reset signals help to safeguard software and hardware functional safety as they can be asserted to speedily recover the system onboard to an initial state and clear any pending errors or events. By definiti... » read more

Communication Is Key To Finding And Fixing Bugs In ICs


Experts at the Table: Finding and eliminating bugs at the source can be painstaking work, but it also can prevent even greater problems from developing later on. To examine the best ways to tackle this problem, Semiconductor Engineering sat down with Ashish Darbari, CEO at Axiomise; Ziyad Hanna, corporate vice president R&D at Cadence; Jim Henson, ASIC verification software product manager ... » read more

Can Models Created With AI Be Trusted?


EDA models that are created using AI need to pass more stringent quality and cost benefit analysis compared to many AI applications in the broader industry. Money is hanging on the line if AI gets it wrong, and all the associated costs must be factored into the equation. Models are some of the most expensive things a development team can create, and it is important to understand the value th... » read more

The 3D-IC Multiphysics Challenge Dictates A Shift-Left Strategy


As the industry marches forward in a 3D-IC centric design approach (figure 1), we are facing a new problem. Sometimes referred to as “electro-thermal” or “electro-thermo-mechanical,” it really is the confluence of multiple forms of physics exerting impacts on both the physical manufacture and structure of these multi-die designs and their electrical behavior. Fig. 1: Illustration... » read more

Verification In Crisis


Why is it still so hard to ensure good quality sign-off happens without leaving behind bugs in silicon? The answer, according to my colleagues at DVCon, is highly nuanced. The industry has been improving overall, as has the complexity of designs. For ASICs, 74% of the designs surveyed in the recent Wilson Research Group/Siemens EDA report have one or more processor cores, 52% have two or mor... » read more

← Older posts Newer posts →