Managing Formal Complexity Even into AI

Managing Formal Complexity Even into AI
by Bernard Murphy on 03-27-2019 at 7:00 am

The Synopsys Formal group have a reputation for putting on comprehensive tutorials/workshops at DVCon and this year again they did not disappoint. The theme for the Thursday workshop was tackling complexity in control and datapath designs using formal. Ravindra Aneja, who I know from Atrenta days, kicked off the session with… Read More


Narrow-Band IoT Adoption Grows as IP Options Narrow

Narrow-Band IoT Adoption Grows as IP Options Narrow
by Bernard Murphy on 03-22-2019 at 12:00 am

Cellular as a method to communicate with the IoT is on a tear for obvious reasons. It’s long-range with no concerns about the lesser reach of Bluetooth or Wi-Fi, it needs no added infrastructure since it already works with 2G/3G/4G (and ultimately 5G I presume) and it’s designed for ultra-low power, supporting those devices expecting… Read More


ARM, NXP Share Usage, Challenges at Synopsys Lunch

ARM, NXP Share Usage, Challenges at Synopsys Lunch
by Bernard Murphy on 03-20-2019 at 7:00 am

Synopsys runs a “Industry verifies with Synopsys” lunch at each DVCon, which isn’t as cheesy as the title might suggest. The bulk of the lunch covers user presentations on their use of Synopsys tools which I find informative and quite open, sharing problems as much as successes. This year, Eamonn Quiqley, FPGA engineering manager… Read More


Segmenting the Machine-Learning Hardware Market

Segmenting the Machine-Learning Hardware Market
by Bernard Murphy on 03-13-2019 at 12:00 pm

One of the great pleasures in what I do is to work with people who are working with people in some of the hottest design areas today. A second-level indirect to be sure but that gives me the luxury of taking a broad view. A recent discussion I had with Kurt Shuler (VP Marketing at Arteris IP) is in this class. As a conscientious marketing… Read More


Synopsys Tackles Debug for Giga-Runs on Giga-Designs

Synopsys Tackles Debug for Giga-Runs on Giga-Designs
by Bernard Murphy on 03-12-2019 at 12:00 pm

I think Synopsys would agree that they were not an early entrant to the emulation game, but once they really got moving, they’ve been working hard to catch up and even overtake in some areas. A recent webinar highlighted work they have been doing to overcome a common challenge in this area. Being able to boot a billion-gate design, … Read More


Arm Deliver Their Next Step in Infrastructure

Arm Deliver Their Next Step in Infrastructure
by Bernard Murphy on 03-08-2019 at 7:00 am

Arm announced their Neoverse plans not long ago at TechCon 2018. Neoverse is a brand, launched by Arm, to provide the foundations for cloud to edge infrastructure in support of their vision of a trillion edge devices. To a cynic this might sound like marketing hype. Sure, they’re widely used in communications infrastructure and… Read More


Mentor Showcases Digital Twin Demo

Mentor Showcases Digital Twin Demo
by Bernard Murphy on 03-06-2019 at 6:00 am

Mentor put on a very interesting tutorial at DVCon this year. Commonly DVCon tutorials center around a single tool; less commonly (in my recent experience) they will detail a solution flow but still within the confines of chip or chip + software design. It is rare indeed to see presentations on a full system design including realistic… Read More


Can I Trust my Hardware Root of Trust?

Can I Trust my Hardware Root of Trust?
by Bernard Murphy on 02-28-2019 at 7:00 am

Hardware Roots of Trust (HRoTs) have become a popular mechanism to provide a foundational level of security in a cell-phone or IoT device or indeed any device that might appear to a hacker to be a juicy target. The concept is simple. In order to offer credible levels of security, any level in the stack has to be able to trust that levels… Read More


Safety: Big Opportunity, A Long and Hard Road

Safety: Big Opportunity, A Long and Hard Road
by Bernard Murphy on 02-27-2019 at 7:00 am

Safety, especially in road vehicles (cars, trucks, motorcycles, etc.), gets a lot of press these days. From the point of view of vendors near the bottom of the value chain it can seem that this just adds another item to the list of product requirements; as long as you have that covered, everything else remains pretty much the same in… Read More


The Best Way to Keep a Secret

The Best Way to Keep a Secret
by Bernard Murphy on 02-20-2019 at 7:00 am

Anyone knows that the best way to keep a secret is never to share it with anyone. Which works fine for your own most personal secrets, but it’s not very useful when you have to share with at least one other, such as in cyber-security. One such need, of enormous importance in the IoT, is authentication; are you who you claim to be? Seas of… Read More