Abstraction: Necessary But Evil


Abstraction allows aspects of a design to be described in an executable form much earlier in the flow. But some abstractions are breaking down, and an increasing amount of lower-level information has to be brought upstream in order to provide estimates that are close enough to reality so informed decisions can be made. The value of abstractions in design cannot be overstated. High levels of ... » read more

What Happened To ESL


Electronic system level ([getkc id="48" kc_name="ESL"]) is a design methodology idea that gained steam in the last 20 years centered mainly around the idea of using higher levels of abstraction to define and implement an electronic design. It was defined and promoted by industry analyst Gary Smith, then at Gartner-Dataquest, and so much has been written on this topic over the years that ESL ... » read more

Making Hardware Design More Agile


Semiconductor engineering sat down to whether changes are needed in hardware design methodology, with Philip Gutierrez, ASIC/FPGA design manager in [getentity id="22306" comment="IBM"]'s FlashSystems Storage Group; Dennis Brophy, director of strategic business development at [getentity id="22017" e_name="Mentor Graphics"]; Frank Schirrmeister, group director for product marketing of the System ... » read more

Prototyping To Help You Win The Battle


Lately, my children and I are closely following a new show on ABC called “Battlebots”. The concept is as simple as it is cool—have a massive bulletproof arena where two remote-controlled robots battle it out until one is knocked out or the time is up (and a jury decides the winner). The battles are all about making physical contact with the other robot to either directly deal them damage ... » read more

Wrong Verification Revolution Offered


SoC design traditionally has been an ad-hoc process, with implementation occurring at the register transfer level. This is where verification starts, and after the blocks have been verified, it becomes an iterative process of integration and verification that continues until the complete system has been assembled. But today, this methodology has at least two major problems, which were addres... » read more

Towards A Metric To Measure Verification Computing Efficiency


Thinking back about DAC 2015 in San Francisco earlier this month, I am happy that at least some of my predictions came true—there was clearly a trend towards making verification smarter. However, one thing struck me while hearing all the discussions on connecting engines is what Jim Hogan called the continuum of verification engines (COVE)—and what we at Cadence call the system development ... » read more

Shift Left: Software Or Hardware?


A couple of weeks ago I was with a virtual prototyping user who described the benefits his company has seen from deploying virtual prototyping for early software development. The use of virtual prototyping has been rolled out progressively to more projects over the years, making it possible for the company to measure its impact on the software availability schedule and the impact has been drama... » read more

Is Your Automotive Software Robust Enough for Hardware Faults?


A look at how virtual prototyping is expanding its reach to improve development of safety critical systems and deal with the single most complex aspect of automotive systems: the embedded software. To read more, click here. » read more

Emulation for Power


Solving power problems in today’s leading-edge SoCs requires not only the best architectural choices but advanced tools and techniques to determine the right path to take. This equates to a combination of hardware emulation and power analysis/optimization software tools. Design teams today must have real-life scenarios to accurately predict the power impact of their architectural decisions... » read more

Lazy Or Bored: The Outcome Might Be The Same


I recently talked to an engineering manager responsible for system validation at a major automotive company. The topic was the continuous growth of software content and how to reach the right software quality. He explained that for the part he is responsible for, most software is created by his suppliers. But because the carmaker is ultimately held responsible for any issue with the car, he has... » read more

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