A switch this month to principles behind building effective agentic systems, going beyond simply a new way to stitch together tools, agents and orchestration, to deeper consideration of user experience and how we most effectively blend agentic with human-in-the-loop. Paul Cunningham (GM, Verification at Cadence), Raúl Camposano… Read More
Author: Bernard Murphy
UX in Agentic Systems. Innovation in Verification
Could Neutral Atoms Take the Lead in Quantum Computing?
As of my recent posts on quantum computing (QC), superconducting QC is the leading technology contender, exemplified in systems from IBM, Google, and Fujitsu. Other technologies such as ion trap, neutral atom, photonic and quantum dot have generally been viewed as intriguing but second tier. I just read a very recent paper suggesting… Read More
Effective Defense Against Hacks at the Edge
IoT permeates every aspect of our lives, in payment systems, access authorization, vehicles, utilities, factories, hospitals, and in so many other fields. Which makes these systems attractive targets for hacking and social disruption while also challenging to protect given the highly constrained resources that many such… Read More
Calibrating Quantum Computing Activity in Financial Services
I was invited to listen in on an event hosted by Fujitsu and Quantum Insider on the reality of Quantum Computing (QC) in financial services today. This market is a good test for QC since multiple possible high value applications have been suggested. The panel was chaired by Brian Lenehan, (Founder and Chair, Quantum Strategy Institute),… Read More
Accellera Updates at DVCon 2026
Lu Dai (chair of Accellera) and I had our regular chat at DVCon U.S. 2026. Accellera also hosted a reception in the exhibits hall, with free snacks and drinks, very well attended. We talked about what’s new in Accellera, with a particular emphasis on the recently released standard for CDC and RDC tool interoperability, also Lu’s … Read More
An Upper Bound on Effective Quantum Computation?
You may think that quantum theory is fully understood but that view is not quite right. There remain open questions around the uncertainty principle, wave-particle duality, measurement collapse, and harmonizing quantum mechanics and gravitation. These concerns may seem very abstract and irrelevant to everyday applications… Read More
Nuclear Power and Design Automation
A couple of folks have asked me to write on nuclear power. Nuclear offers additional sources for power generation, a pressing concern thanks to demand from giant data centers. Also, investment by Microsoft, Sam Altman and others signals their urgency to accelerate past slow moving utilities plans. I have some background in this… Read More
Post-Silicon Validating an MMU. Innovation in Verification
Some post-silicon bugs are unavoidable, but we’re getting better at catching them before we ship. Here we look at a method based on a bare-metal exerciser to stress-test the MMU. Paul Cunningham (GM, Verification at Cadence), Raúl Camposano (Silicon Catalyst, entrepreneur, former Synopsys CTO and lecturer at Stanford, EE292A)… Read More
Trust in Verification with AI
These are stressful times in functional verification. We are being pushed to more aggressively embrace AI-based automation, knowing we will continue to be held accountable for quality of results. Verification misses could upend careers, maybe enterprises. It is tempting to believe that sanity will prevail and we will ultimately… Read More
Siemens Fuse EDA AI Agent Releases to Orchestrate Agentic Semiconductor and PCB Design
Though terminology sometimes get fuzzy, consensus holds that an agent manages a bounded task with control through a natural language interface. An agentic orchestrator, itself an agent, manages a more complex objective requiring reasoning through multi-step actions and is responsible for orchestrating those actions. By… Read More
Is Intel About to Take Flight?