Using Data And AI More Effectively In EDA


Key Takeaways The data being produced by EDA tools tends to be for human consumption and has weak semantics. Agents are attempting to create actionable information from unstructured data. The Model Context Protocol may provide AI with access to better data. Semiconductor design generates a lot of data, but how much of that is useful or currently being used by AI tools? And h... » read more

Formal Verification First: How AI Supports But Cannot Replace It


At a recent VLSI-D panel, industry leaders explored one of the most pressing topics in silicon design today — the intersection of AI-powered EDA, which is revolutionizing chip design for tomorrow. Ashish Darbari, CEO of Axiomise, questioned the panelists on the role of AI in chip design, optimizing PPA, validation and verification. While the panel explored the role of AI in design implemen... » read more

Formal Verification Fundamentals Remain Non-Negotiable In The New Verification Revolution


The semiconductor industry stands at a critical juncture. First-time silicon success rates have reached all-time lows, while design complexity continues to grow exponentially. System-on-chip designs now integrate billions of transistors, multiple processor cores, complex memory hierarchies, and sophisticated interconnect fabrics. In this environment, the stakes for verification accuracy have ne... » read more

The Verification Conundrum


When constrained random test pattern generation became the de facto way to verify designs, reference models became necessary to check that a design was producing the correct output. These were often distributed across several models, such as checkers, scoreboards and assertions. Another model that had to be created was the coverage model. It was required because you had to know if a generate... » read more

Benchmark For AI-Aided Chip Design That Evaluates LLMs Across 3 Critical Tasks (UCSD, Columbia)


Researchers at UCSD and Columbia University published "ChipBench: A Next-Step Benchmark for Evaluating LLM Performance in AI-Aided Chip Design." Abstract "While Large Language Models (LLMs) show significant potential in hardware engineering, current benchmarks suffer from saturation and limited task diversity, failing to reflect LLMs' performance in real industrial workflows. To address t... » read more

Does Your RISC-V Core Meet The Standard?


Key Takeaways Architectural conformance and implementation verification are necessary but different for RISC-V designs, yet few verification engineers have experience on the conformance side. While RISC-V enables flexibility, there is a potential for ecosystem fragmentation. It is mathematically impossible to test every instruction combination, so engineers are moving beyond just "bl... » read more

Multi-Die Assemblies Require More Detailed Test Plan Earlier


Key Takeaways Design for test takes on new urgency in complex multi-die assemblies, where it can be used to minimize downstream errors and the cost of fixing them. DFT needs to be increasingly detailed due to more connections and the inability to access some components. DFT strategies need to be developed earlier and may require multiple testing approaches. Multi-die assembl... » read more

New Innovative Way to Functionally Verify Heterogeneous 2D/3D Package Connectivity


The heterogeneous integration of multiple chiplets in a single packaging platform is critical for many high performance compute segemnts such as AI, Hyperscalers, Cloud datacenters, Neural processors and even autonomous vehicles. With the quantity of chiplets commonly exceeding double-digit numbers. Add to that the increasing usage of high-speed, low power and low latency high-bandwidth-memory ... » read more

Will It Blend: A Methodology for Verifying the Hardware/Software Interface in Complex SoCs


Verification of modern System on Chip (SoC) designs involve many components. Hardware Description Languages (VHDL, System Verilog), Unified Power Format (UPF), Software Languages (C#/C++), Interconnect standards (IP-XACT, AMBA), and specialty purpose-built layers such as the Universal Verification Methodology (UVM) and System Verilog Assertions (SVA). This deck explores using Arteris SoC Integr... » read more

Engineering After Orthogonalization: Why Verification Has Become A Lifecycle Discipline


Over the past several decades studying verification practices across the semiconductor industry, I’ve watched assumptions that once held up remarkably well begin to strain under the weight of modern system complexity. This is not a loss of engineering rigor. It is the result of systems that no longer conform to the boundaries earlier design models depended on. For much of the industry’s ... » read more

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