Arm 2022 Neoverse Update, Roadmap

Arm 2022 Neoverse Update, Roadmap
by Bernard Murphy on 09-27-2022 at 6:00 am

Neoverse update min

Arm recently provided their annual update on the Neoverse product line, targeting infrastructure from cloud to communication to the edge. Chris Bergey (SVP and GM for infrastructure) led the update, starting with a shock-and-awe pitch on Neoverse deployment. He played up that Arm-based servers are now in every major public … Read More


Load-Managing Verification Hardware Acceleration in the Cloud

Load-Managing Verification Hardware Acceleration in the Cloud
by Bernard Murphy on 09-22-2022 at 6:00 am

Scheduling emulation min

There’s a reason the verification hardware accelerator business is growing so impressively. Modern SoCs – now routinely multi-billion gate devices – must be verified/validated against massively demanding test plans, requiring high levels of test coverage. Use cases extend all the way up to firmware, OSes, even application… Read More


Finally, A Serious Attack on Debug Productivity

Finally, A Serious Attack on Debug Productivity
by Bernard Murphy on 09-20-2022 at 6:00 am

Verisium min

Verification technologies have progressed in almost all domains over the years. We’re now substantially more productive in creating tests for block, SoC and hybrid software/hardware verification. These tests provide better coverage through randomization and formal modeling. And verification engines are faster – substantially… Read More


Synopsys Vision Processor Inside SiMa.ai Edge ML Platform

Synopsys Vision Processor Inside SiMa.ai Edge ML Platform
by Bernard Murphy on 09-15-2022 at 6:00 am

Dynamic range min

SiMa.ai just announced that they achieved first silicon success on their new MLSoC, for AI applications at the edge, using Synopsys’ design, verification, IP and design services solutions. Notably this design includes the Synopsys ARC® EV74 processor (among other IP) for vision processing. SiMa.ai claim their platform, now… Read More


Connecting SystemC to SystemVerilog

Connecting SystemC to SystemVerilog
by Bernard Murphy on 09-13-2022 at 6:00 am

UVM Connect

Siemens EDA is clearly on a mission to help verifiers get more out of their tools and methodologies. Recently they published a white paper on UVM polymorphism. Now they have followed with a paper on using UVM Connect, re-introducing how to connect between SystemC and SystemVerilog. I’m often mystified by seemingly overlapping… Read More


Coherency in Heterogeneous Designs

Coherency in Heterogeneous Designs
by Bernard Murphy on 09-01-2022 at 6:00 am

Ncore application

Ever wonder why coherent networks are needed beyond server design? The value of cache coherence in a multi-core or many-core server is now well understood. Software developers want to write multi-threaded programs for such systems and expect well-defined behavior when accessing common memory locations. They reasonably expect… Read More


Hazard Detection Using Petri Nets. Innovation in Verification

Hazard Detection Using Petri Nets. Innovation in Verification
by Bernard Murphy on 08-24-2022 at 6:00 am

Innovation New

Modeling and verifying asynchronous systems is a constant challenge. Petri net models may provide an answer. Paul Cunningham (GM, Verification at Cadence), Raúl Camposano (Silicon Catalyst, entrepreneur, former Synopsys CTO and now Silvaco CTO) and I continue our series on research ideas. As always, feedback welcome.

The

Read More

UVM Polymorphism is Your Friend

UVM Polymorphism is Your Friend
by Bernard Murphy on 08-17-2022 at 6:00 am

Polymorphism min

Rich Edelman of Siemens EDA recently released a paper on this topic. I’ve known Rich since our days together back in National Semi. And I’ve always been impressed by his ability to make a complex topic more understandable to us lesser mortals. He tackles a tough one in this paper – a complex concept (polymorphism) in a complex domain… Read More


Coverage Analysis in Questa Visualizer

Coverage Analysis in Questa Visualizer
by Bernard Murphy on 08-10-2022 at 6:00 am

Questa coverage

Coverage analysis is how you answer the question “have I tested enough?” You need some way to quantify the completeness of our testing; coverage is how you do that. Right out of the gate this is a bit deceptive. To truly cover a design our tests would need to cover every accessible state and state transition. The complexity of that task… Read More


NoC-Based SoC Design. A Sondrel Perspective

NoC-Based SoC Design. A Sondrel Perspective
by Bernard Murphy on 08-03-2022 at 6:00 am

NoC optimization min

Why are NoCs important in modern SoCs and what are best design practices for using NoC? As always, a great place to start is the perspective of an SoC design organization which depends on pumping out high performance designs. Sondrel is a turnkey ASIC service provider, covering the spectrum from system design to silicon supply. … Read More