Users Talk Back On Standards Process


One of the major themes of DVCon this year was the standard that currently goes by the name of Portable Stimulus (see related story, Portable Stimulus – The Name Must Change). It is not ready for prime time yet, but there was plenty to hear and learn about the emerging standard, including what users think about it and the standardization process. The panel gave the users the opportunity to vo... » read more

Carving Up Verification


Anirudh Devgan, executive vice president and general manager of [getentity id="22032" e_name="Cadence's"] System & Verification Group, sat down with Semiconductor Engineering to discuss the evolution of verification. What follows are excerpts of that conversation. SE: What’s changing in [getkc id="10" kc_name="verification"]? Devgan: Parallelism, greater capacity and multiple engine... » read more

VCS Fine-Grained Parallelism Simulation Performance Technology


Learn how fine-grained parallelism simulation technology enables delivery of breakthrough parallel simulation performance improvement needed to reduce turn-around time for critical-path tests. » read more

Worst-Case Results Causing Problems


The ability of design tools to identify worst-case scenarios has allowed many chipmakers to flag potential issues well ahead of tapeout, but as process geometries shrink that approach is beginning to create its own set of issues. This is particularly true at 16/14nm and below, where extra circuitry can slow performance, boost the amount of power required to drive signals over longer, thinne... » read more

Synopsys SoundWire Test Suite


Validation and interoperability are always a challenge for any new protocol. An earlier white paper, Digital Audio Simplified: MIPI SoundWire, discussed the basics of digital audio transmission, and benefits of SoundWire over other audio interfaces. This whitepaper describes how easy it is to integrate and validate a SoundWire design using Synopsys SoundWire VIP Test Suite. To read more, cli... » read more

Quality Issues Widen


As the amount of semiconductor content in cars, medical and industrial applications increases, so does the concern about how long these devices will function properly—and what exactly that means. Quality is frequently a fuzzy concept. In mobile phones, problems have ranged from bad antenna placement, which resulted in batteries draining too quickly, to features that take too long to load. ... » read more

Why Auto Designs Take So Long


Designing chips for the automotive market is adding significant overhead, particularly for chips with stringent safety requirements. On the verification side it could result in an additional 6 to 12 months of work. On the design side, developing the same processor in the mobile market would take 6 fewer man months. And when it comes to complex electronic control units (ECUs) or [getkc id="81... » read more

Could DVCon Be Better?


DVCon is undoubtedly the best conference in the industry if your interest is functional verification. In the past, it has also had a slant toward design. The focus is quite simply based on the standards activity going on within [getentity id="22028" e_name="Accellera"], the EDA industry's body that turns problems into solution in a short space of time. As those standards mature, they are handed... » read more

Better Code With RTL Linting And CDC Verification


Automated design rule checking, or linting, has been around in RTL verification for at least a couple decades, yet still many HDL designers completely ignore this simple yet very powerful bug hunting method. Why would a busy designer need to run this annoying warning generator? The hostility against using conventional linting tools is often explained by the enormous amount of output noise, limi... » read more

Fault Simulation Reborn


Fault simulation, one of the oldest tools in the EDA industry toolbox, is receiving a serious facelift after it almost faded from existence. In the early days, fault simulation was used to grade the quality of manufacturing test vectors. That task was replaced almost entirely by [getkc id="173" comment="scan test"] and automatic test pattern generation (ATPG). Today, functional safety is cau... » read more

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