Why silicon photonics and 2.5D design go together

Why silicon photonics and 2.5D design go together
by Beth Martin on 06-10-2015 at 4:30 pm

Silicon photonics is one of the upstart “More than Moore” technologies designed to enable the next generation of high-performance devices. Photonic design is the art of moving and transforming signals in the form of photons, allowing the message to literally travel at the speed of light, and bringing the promise of significant… Read More


Automate those voltage-dependent DRC checks!

Automate those voltage-dependent DRC checks!
by Beth Martin on 06-04-2015 at 10:00 pm

Because IC design and verification never gets simpler, verification engineers now have to comply with voltage-dependent DRC (VD-DRC) rules. What does this term mean, and what new challenges does it bring to the DRC task? I’d like to share what I learned during another water-cooler conversation with Dina Medhat, senior technical… Read More


Will those IO pad rings pass foundry muster?

Will those IO pad rings pass foundry muster?
by Beth Martin on 05-31-2015 at 10:00 pm

I was talking recently to Dina Medhat, a senior technical marketing engineer at Mentor, about, of all things, IO rings. It has not occurred to me that verifying that your IO rings comply with foundry rules presents new challenges.

IO ring checking isn’t new, nor is it unique to advanced IC process nodes. However, the same forces of… Read More


How to design silicon photonics–take this class!

How to design silicon photonics–take this class!
by Beth Martin on 05-25-2015 at 9:30 pm

Silicon Photonics is the hottest prospect for blazing fast communication between chips in servers, data centers, and supercomputers.

By using light instead of electrical signals, it promise to usher in a new standard of high performance, low power devices while extending the use of more mature process nodes, helping to reduce… Read More


Don’t Miss Mentor Graphics U2U San Jose, April 21, 2015

Don’t Miss Mentor Graphics U2U San Jose, April 21, 2015
by Beth Martin on 04-16-2015 at 10:00 pm

Mentor Graphics’ User2User conference will be held next week on April 21[SUP]st[/SUP] at the San Jose DoubleTree Hotel. This one-day, free conference is the perfect opportunity to learn, network, and share with other Mentor Graphics users.

The day starts off with back-to-back keynotes that examine different aspects of the … Read More


Mentor and ASSET Intertech Do a DFT World Tour

Mentor and ASSET Intertech Do a DFT World Tour
by Beth Martin on 02-19-2015 at 1:01 pm

The Mentor Graphics test folks and ASSET Intertech have teamed up to provide a series of free DFT seminars in the US, Europe, and Asia. The first one is in Austin, TX on February 19, 2015, and the last is in Tokyo on April 24. Hereis the full list of locations and dates.

The morning session covers IJTAG. The new IEEE 1687 Internal JTAG (IJTAG)… Read More


What’s Hot at SPIE Advanced Lithography

What’s Hot at SPIE Advanced Lithography
by Beth Martin on 02-04-2015 at 10:00 pm

The 40[SUP]th[/SUP] SPIE Advanced Lithography conference will be at the San Jose Convention Center 22-26 February. Over the past few years, this conference has grown in scope to include emerging patterning technologies, like directed self-assembly (DSA) and design-process-technology co-optimization.

Underlying all … Read More


Results of TSMC’s ECO Fill Flow

Results of TSMC’s ECO Fill Flow
by Beth Martin on 12-22-2014 at 7:00 am

By Jeff Wilson, Mentor Graphics and Anderson Chiu, TSMC

At this year’s TSMC Open Innovation Platform® (OIP) Ecosystem Forum, Mentor Graphics and TSMC co-presented some results of the ECO Fill flow developed for TSMC customers working at advanced nodes. Here is a summary of the presentation. (TSMC customers can access the presentation… Read More


Its a bouncing baby IEEE standard!

Its a bouncing baby IEEE standard!
by Beth Martin on 11-04-2014 at 12:00 am

Pass the cigars! On November 3rd, 2014, the IEEE-SA Standards Board finally approved IEEE P1687 as a new standard. From now on, you can drop the “P” and just call it 1687, or to its friends, IJTAG. Now would be a good time to sign up for an IJTAG technical workshop.

The new IEEE 1687 Internal JTAG (IJTAG) standard is changing… Read More


"How do I …?" Fast help for specific EDA software questions

"How do I …?" Fast help for specific EDA software questions
by Beth Martin on 10-15-2014 at 4:55 pm

It’s a question that we ask all the time. How do I replace a door? How do I set up a printer? For most questions in today’s world, you can open a browser, type a question into your favorite search engine…and voilà, there you go! Ten seconds of typing, a few more sorting through the results, and you have an answer (or many answers!). This … Read More