AI In A/MS IC Design: Between Buzzword And Productivity Boost


In the past few years, AI has burst onto the public stage in grand style. This ongoing trend is apparent in the rising number of AI applications in everyday life. But more and more, it can also be seen in a broad range of technical niches, where the main motivation is AI’s promise of continuously increasing efficiency. One such niche that has seen decades of attempts to achieve greater eff... » read more

Streamlining DO-254 Compliance: The Power Of Automated Clock-Domain Crossing Verification


In the realm of safety-critical electronic hardware, particularly those governed by DO-254 compliance directives, ensuring design integrity is paramount. One of the most insidious challenges designers face is clock-domain crossing (CDC) violations. When data moves between asynchronous clock domains, it can lead to metastability issues, causing unpredictable behavior, data loss or corruption, an... » read more

Arm Performance Cookbook: Your Guide to Optimal Design and Verification (EBook)


The Performance Cookbook for Arm is your essential resource for mastering the complexities of system-level performance, architecture exploration, and SoC verification. Why Download the Performance Cookbook? In-Depth Exploration - Dive into the evolution of Arm compute subsystem architectures, with detailed coverage on how critical components interact to deliver optimal performance be... » read more

Calibre 3DPERC: Your Key To Robust ESD Solutions For 3D ICs


As semiconductor designs move beyond the limits of planar integration, three-dimensional (3D) IC technology introduces new challenges for ESD (electrostatic discharge) protection and verification. In this paper, author Dina Medhat explores how traditional verification methods must evolve for 3D ICs, detailing the crucial differences in pad classification, protection circuit strategies and the i... » read more

Securing IP Integrity In Advanced SoC Design


In today’s complex system-on-chip (SoC) design flows, intellectual property (IP) blocks are everywhere—licensed from third parties, leveraged from internal libraries, or hand-crafted by expert teams. These IPs are typically delivered in a “black box” format and are expected to remain unchanged throughout the physical design stages, from initial floorplanning to top-level placement, rout... » read more

Faster Bug Discovery And Coverage Closure


Modern chip development is a complex process where functional verification often consumes a significant portion of project time and resources. Achieving efficient bug discovery and coverage closure is essential to prevent issues from reaching silicon. This white paper introduces an innovative approach using AI-powered Verification Space Optimization (VSO.ai) to enhance verification processes. ... » read more

Spray And Pray Wastes Power


For quite some time I have felt that the way the industry approaches power is less than optimal. Techniques such as clock gating and power gating have been used to reduce the amount of unnecessary activity and leakage, but is there more activity that does not contribute to an intended action? While unnecessary activity may be unimportant in the functional sense, it all represents power that ... » read more

Changes In Mixed-Signal IC Verification


Analog and digital engineers traditionally have worked in very different worlds. Many analog engineers for years have opted to verify analog designs by scrutinizing waveforms, while digital engineers have treated analog blocks like black boxes. But as these two areas converge in advanced SoCs and multi-die assemblies, the demarcation line between these engineering disciplines is being erased. S... » read more

Accellera Standard Supports Hierarchical Data Model For CDC And RDC Analysis


The hierarchical flow for clock domain crossing (CDC) and reset domain crossing (RDC) is a methodology used in the verification of large, complex digital integrated circuits. It's a divide-and-conquer approach that significantly improves the efficiency and turnaround time for ensuring design reliability against metastability and other issues at asynchronous boundaries. Questa CDC and RDC sol... » read more

Predictable Design Optimization And Closure With Adaptive Scenario Compression


Modern semiconductor chip design faces growing complexity due to numerous timing scenarios driven by varying operating conditions and physical effects. This complexity is especially pronounced in mobile and automotive chips, which require optimization across diverse performance and reliability demands. Designers currently focus on a limited subset of scenarios to manage computational load, but ... » read more

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