Test experts use the acronym BIST for Built In Self Test, it’s the test logic added to an IP block that speeds up the task of testing by creating stimulus and then looking at the output results. Memory IP is a popular category for SoC designers, as modern chips include multiple memory blocks for fast, local data and register storage… Read More
Author: Daniel Payne
IP Subsystems and Chiplets for Edge and AI Accelerators
From a business viewpoint we often read in the technical press about the virtues of applying AI, and in the early days most of the AI model building was done in the cloud, because of the high computation requirements, yet there’s a developing trend now to use AI accelerators at the Edge. The other mega-trend in the past decade… Read More
Freemium Business Model Applied to Analog IC Layout Automation
Freemium is the two words “free” and “premium” combined together, and many of us have enjoyed using freemium apps on our phones, tablets and desktop devices over the years. The concept is quite simple, you find an app that is useful, and download the free version, mostly to see if it operates as advertised,… Read More
Data Processing Unit (DPU) uses Verification IP (VIP) for PCI Express
Domain specific processors are a mega-trend in the semiconductor industry, so we see new three letter acronyms like DPU, for Data Processing Unit. System level performance can actually be improved by moving some of the tasks away from the CPU. Companies like Xilinx (Alveo), Amazon (Nitro) and NVIDIA (BlueField) have been talking… Read More
Webinar: Beyond the Basics of IP-based Digital Design Management
According to the ESD Alliance, the single biggest revenue category in our industry is for semiconductor IP, so the concept of IP reuse is firmly established as a way to get complex products to market more quickly and reducing risk. On the flip side, with hundreds or even thousands of IP blocks in a complex SoC, how does a team, division… Read More
Analog IC Layout Automation Benefits
I viewed a recent webinar from Paul Clewes of Pulsic, and the topic was Balancing Analog Layout Parasitics in MOSFET Differential Pairs. This topic interests me, because back in 1982 I wrote my first IC layout automation tool at Intel that automatically created 15% of a GPU chip layout called the 82786, then joined Silicon Compilers… Read More
Using a GPU to Speed Up PCB Layout Editing
I can remember back in the 1980s how Apollo workstations were quite popular, because they accelerated the graphics display time for EDA tools much better than competitive hardware. Fast forward to 2022 and we have the same promise of speeding up EDA tools like PCB layout editing by using a GPU. At the 58th DAC there was a session called,… Read More
Working with the Unified Power Format
The Accellera organization created the concept of a Unified Power Format (UPF) back in 2006, and by 2007 they shared version 1.0 so that chip designers would have a standard way to communicate the power intentions of IP blocks and full chips. By 2009 the IEEE received the Accellera donation on UPF , reviewed multiple drafts and published… Read More
Faster Time to RTL Simulation Using Incremental Build Flows
I’ve been following Neil Johnson on Twitter and LinkedIn for several years now, as he has written and shared so much about the IC design and verification process, both as a consultant and working at EDA vendors. His recent white paper for Siemens EDA caught my eye, so I took the time to read through the 10 page document to learn… Read More
DAC 2021 – Embedded FPGA IP from Menta
I’ve followed the enthusiastic market acceptance of FPGA chips over the decades, and even semiconductor companies like Intel acquired Altera, while AMD tries to acquire Xilinx. The idea of field programmable logic makes a lot of sense for use in systems designs today, and it was inevitable that a company like Menta would… Read More
More Headwinds – CHIPS Act Chop? – Chip Equip Re-Shore? Orders Canceled & Fab Delay