Taming Physical Closure Below 16nm

Taming Physical Closure Below 16nm
by Bernard Murphy on 01-30-2023 at 6:00 am

NoC floorplan

Atiq Raza, well known in the semiconductor industry, has observed that “there will be no simple chips below 16nm”. By which he meant that only complex and therefore high value SoCs justify the costs of deep submicron design.  Getting to closure on PPA goals is getting harder for such designs, especially now at 7nm and 5nm. Place and… Read More


Effective Writing and ChatGPT. The SEMI Test

Effective Writing and ChatGPT. The SEMI Test
by Bernard Murphy on 01-25-2023 at 6:00 am

Writing and ChatGPT min

ChatGPT is a hot topic, leading a few of my colleagues to ask me as a writer what I think of the technology.  I write content for tech companies and most of my contacts freely confess that they or more often their experts struggle with writing. If a tool could do that job for them they would be happy and I would have to find a different hobby.… Read More


All-In-One Edge Surveillance Gains Traction

All-In-One Edge Surveillance Gains Traction
by Bernard Murphy on 01-24-2023 at 10:00 am

Surveillance cameras min

Like it or not, the surveillance market is growing, at a CAGR approaching 10%. Big brother concerns sometimes cloud the picture but overlook the much larger practical yet less hype-worthy applications for surveillance. Home and industrial security, enhanced traffic flow management, monitoring for fire and other fast-growing… Read More


2022 Retrospective. Innovation in Verification

2022 Retrospective. Innovation in Verification
by Bernard Murphy on 01-18-2023 at 10:00 am

Innovation New

As usual in January we start with a look back at the papers we reviewed last year. 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. And don’t forget to come see us at DVCon,… Read More


Siemens Aspires to AI in PCB Design

Siemens Aspires to AI in PCB Design
by Bernard Murphy on 12-28-2022 at 6:00 am

PCB min

This. AI in PCB design is not a new idea. Other PCB software companies also make that claim. But when a mainstream systems technology company like Siemens talks about the subject, that is noteworthy. They already have an adaptive user interface (UI) for their mechanical modeling suite and to assist in low-code development for application… Read More


Validating NoC Security. Innovation in Verification

Validating NoC Security. Innovation in Verification
by Bernard Murphy on 12-21-2022 at 6:00 am

Innovation New

Network on Chip (NoC) connectivity is ubiquitous in SoCs, therefore should be an attractive attack vector. Is it possible to prove robustness against a broad and configurable range of threats? Paul Cunningham (Senior VP/GM, Verification at Cadence), Raúl Camposano (Silicon Catalyst, entrepreneur, former Synopsys CTO and… Read More


Re-configuring RISC-V Post-Silicon

Re-configuring RISC-V Post-Silicon
by Bernard Murphy on 12-07-2022 at 6:00 am

Post Silicon RISC V extensions min

How do you reconfigure system characteristics? The answer to that question is well established – through software. Make the underlying hardware general enough and use platform software to update behaviors and tweak hardware configuration registers. This simple fact drove the explosion of embedded processors everywhere … Read More


Ant Colony Optimization. Innovation in Verification

Ant Colony Optimization. Innovation in Verification
by Bernard Murphy on 11-28-2022 at 6:00 am

Innovation New

Looking for better ways to search a huge state space in model checking, Ant Colony Optimization (ACO) is one possible approach. Paul Cunningham (Senior VP/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,… Read More


MIPI in the Car – Transport From Sensors to Compute

MIPI in the Car – Transport From Sensors to Compute
by Bernard Murphy on 11-09-2022 at 6:00 am

NXP Camera subsystem min

I’ve written on and off about sensors, ML inference of the output of those sensors and the application of both in modern cars. Neither ADAS nor autonomous/semi-autonomous driving would be possible without these. But until now I have never covered the transport between sensors and the compute that safely turns what they produce… Read More


Slashing Power in Wearables. The Next Step

Slashing Power in Wearables. The Next Step
by Bernard Murphy on 11-02-2022 at 6:00 am

Fitness bamd and phone min

In wearables and hearables, low power is king. Earbuds for example still only manage a half-day active use before we need to recharge. Half a day falls short of truly convenient for most of us – a full day would be much better, allowing for overnight recharge. Physics limits battery sizes so system designers must look to SoC architectures… Read More