Quantum Computing Technologies and Challenges

Quantum Computing Technologies and Challenges
by Bernard Murphy on 12-18-2025 at 6:00 am

superconducting and trapped ion quantum computers min

There’s more than one way to build a quantum computer (QC) though it took me a while to find a good reference. I finally settled on Building Quantum Computers: A Practical Introduction. Excellent book but designed only for those who will enjoy lots of quantum math. I’m going to spare you that and instead describe a couple of the more… Read More


Reimagining Architectural Exploration in the Age of AI

Reimagining Architectural Exploration in the Age of AI
by Bernard Murphy on 12-17-2025 at 6:00 am

Rise and Precision flow

This is not about architecting a full SoC from scratch. You already have a competitive platform, now you want to add some kind of accelerator, maybe video, audio, ML, and need to explore architectural options for how accelerator and software should be partitioned, and to optimize PPA. Now we have AI to help us optimize you’d like … Read More


Quantum Computing Algorithms and Applications

Quantum Computing Algorithms and Applications
by Bernard Murphy on 12-15-2025 at 6:00 am

Quantum computer chip

In an upcoming Innovation blog we’ll get into how quantum computers are programmed. Here I’d like to look more closely at algorithms beyond Grover and Shor, and what practical applications there might be for quantum computing. I also take a quick look at what analysts are saying about potential market size. Even more than in AI, … Read More


AI Deployment Trends Outside Electronic Design

AI Deployment Trends Outside Electronic Design
by Bernard Murphy on 12-11-2025 at 6:00 am

Balancing quality with speed

In a field as white-hot as AI it can be difficult to separate cheerleading from reality. I am as enthusiastic as others about the potential but not the “AI everywhere in everything” message that some emphasize. So it was interesting to find a survey which looks at the deployment reality outside our narrow domain of electronic and … Read More


Propelling DFT to New Levels of Coverage

Propelling DFT to New Levels of Coverage
by Bernard Murphy on 12-10-2025 at 6:00 am

Increase DFT coverage

Siemens recently released a white paper on a methodology to enhance test coverage for designs with tight DPPM requirements. I confess when I first skimmed the paper, I thought this was another spin on fault simulation for ASIL A-D qualification, but I was corrected and now agree that while there are some conceptual similarities… Read More


An Assistant to Ease Your Transition to PSS

An Assistant to Ease Your Transition to PSS
by Bernard Murphy on 12-04-2025 at 6:00 am

PSS Assistant min

At times it has seemed like any development in EDA had to build a GenAI app that would catch the attention of Wall Street. Now I see more attention to GenAI being used for less glamorous but eminently more practical advances. This recent white paper from Siemens on how to help verification engineers get up to speed faster with PSS is … Read More


We Need to Turn Specs into Oracles for Agentic Verification

We Need to Turn Specs into Oracles for Agentic Verification
by Bernard Murphy on 12-03-2025 at 6:00 am

Spec as an oracle min

The natural language understanding now possible in LLMs has raised interest in using specs as a direct reference for test generation, to eliminate need for intermediate and fallible human translation. Sadly, specs today are not an infallible source of truth for multiple reasons. I am grateful to Shelly Henry (CEO of MooresLab)… Read More


Website Developers May Have Most to Fear From AI

Website Developers May Have Most to Fear From AI
by Bernard Murphy on 12-01-2025 at 6:00 am

Engineer struggling with a website

Further on the theme of what jobs will AI displace or radically change, I have been thinking about Walmart’s recent announcement with OpenAI, to enable customers to buy products directly within ChatGPT. Seems far removed from any care-abouts in electronic design but bear with me. We’ve been hearing about sizeable layoffs at Amazon,… Read More


Agentic Bug Localization. Innovation in Verification

Agentic Bug Localization. Innovation in Verification
by Bernard Murphy on 11-26-2025 at 6:00 am

Innovation New

Bug localization continues to be a challenge for both bug triage and root-cause analysis. Agentic approaches suggest a way forward. Paul Cunningham (GM, Verification at Cadence), Raúl Camposano (Silicon Catalyst, entrepreneur, former Synopsys CTO and lecturer at Stanford, EE292A) and I continue our series on research ideas.… Read More


An Insight into Building Quantum Computers

An Insight into Building Quantum Computers
by Bernard Murphy on 11-19-2025 at 6:00 am

Quantum processor courtesy IBM

Given my physics background I’m ashamed to admit I know very little about quantum computers (QC) though I’m now working to correct that defect. Like many of you I wanted to start with the basics: what are the components and systems in the physical implementation of a quantum “CPU” and how do they map to classical CPUs? I’m finding the… Read More