A Credible Player at the Power Table

A Credible Player at the Power Table
by Bernard Murphy on 08-03-2016 at 7:00 am

For a while it seemed like Mentor lived on the margins of the (RTL) design-for-power game. They had interesting micro-architectural optimization capabilities through their Calypto heritage but no real industry chops in power estimation, a must-have when you are claiming to reduce power. Better known offerings in RTL power … Read More


Limits to Deep Reasoning in Vision

Limits to Deep Reasoning in Vision
by Bernard Murphy on 08-01-2016 at 7:00 am

If you are a regular reader, you’ll know I like to explore the boundaries of technology. Readers I respect sometimes interpret this as a laughable attempt to oppose the inevitable march of progress, but that is not my purpose. In understanding the limits of a particular technology, it is possible to envision what properties a successor… Read More


Dragging RTL Creation into the 21st Century

Dragging RTL Creation into the 21st Century
by Bernard Murphy on 07-29-2016 at 7:00 am

When I was at Atrenta, we always thought it would be great to do as-you-type RTL linting. It’s the natural use model for anyone used to writing text in virtually any modern application (especially on the Web, thanks to Google spell and grammar-checks). You may argue that you create your RTL in Vi or EMACS and you don’t need no stinking… Read More


The Appeal of a Multi-Purpose DSP

The Appeal of a Multi-Purpose DSP
by Bernard Murphy on 07-26-2016 at 9:45 am

When you think of a DSP IP, you tend to think of very targeted applications – for baseband signal processing or audio or vision perhaps. Whatever the application, sometimes you want a solution optimally tuned to that need: best possible performance and power in the smallest possible footprint. These needs will continue,… Read More


Formally Crossing the Chasm

Formally Crossing the Chasm
by Bernard Murphy on 07-25-2016 at 7:00 am

Formal verification for hardware was stuck for a long time with a reputation of being interesting but difficult to use and consequently limited to niche applications. Jasper worked hard to change this, particularly with their apps for JasperGold and I have been seeing more anecdotal information that mainstream adoption is growing.… Read More


Big Data Lessons from the LHC

Big Data Lessons from the LHC
by Bernard Murphy on 07-20-2016 at 7:00 am

Big Data techniques have become important in many domains, not just to drive marketing strategies but also for semiconductor design, as evidenced by Ansys’ recent announcements around their use of Big Data analytics. And they should become even more important in the brave new world of the IoT. So it makes sense to look at an organization… Read More


Technology, Shakespeare, Linguistics and Combatting Terror

Technology, Shakespeare, Linguistics and Combatting Terror
by Bernard Murphy on 07-19-2016 at 7:00 am

My brother Sean is working on post-doctoral research in linguistics, especially the use of language in Shakespeare’s plays. Which may seem like a domain far removed from the interests of the technologists who read these blogs, but stick with me. This connects in unexpected ways to analytics of interest to us techies, and ultimately… Read More


Integrity and Reliability in Analog and Mixed-Signal

Integrity and Reliability in Analog and Mixed-Signal
by Bernard Murphy on 07-18-2016 at 1:30 pm

In the largest and fastest growing categories in electronics – mobile, IoT and automotive – analog is playing an increasingly important role. It’s important in delivering high integrity power and critical signals to the design though LDO regulators and PLLs, in managing high speed interfaces like DDR and SERDES, in interfacing… Read More


Safety Verification for Software

Safety Verification for Software
by Bernard Murphy on 07-17-2016 at 7:00 am

When automakers are thinking about the safety of an embedded system in a car, while it’s good to know the hardware has been comprehensively tested for safety-specific requirements, that isn’t much help if the software component of the system is not supplied with similarly robust guarantees.

The challenge is that the software … Read More


Learn How to Debug UVM Test Benches Faster – Upcoming Synopsys Webinar

Learn How to Debug UVM Test Benches Faster – Upcoming Synopsys Webinar
by Bernard Murphy on 07-14-2016 at 4:00 pm

UVM for developing testbenches is a wonderful thing, as most verification engineers will attest. It provides abstraction capabilities, it encapsulates powerful operations, it simplifies and unifies constrained-random testing – it has really revolutionized the way we verify at the block and subsystem level.

However great… Read More