#57DAC – Panel Discussion of High Level Synthesis

#57DAC – Panel Discussion of High Level Synthesis
by Daniel Payne on 07-28-2020 at 10:00 am

sean dart, Cadence

Presenters took a trip down memory lane at DAC this year by having a panel discussion on HLS (High Level Synthesis) spanning from 1974 to 2020, and that time period aligns with when I first graduated from the University of Minnesota in 1978, starting chip design at Intel, then later transitioning into EDA companies by 1986. MarilynRead More


SystemC Methodology for Virtual Prototype at DVCon USA

SystemC Methodology for Virtual Prototype at DVCon USA
by Daniel Payne on 07-13-2020 at 10:00 am

Register Model min

DVCon was the first EDA conference in our industry impacted by the pandemic and travel restrictions in March of this year, and the organizers did a superb job of adjusting the schedule. I was able to review a DVCon tutorial called “Defining a SystemC Methodology for your Company“, given by Swaminathan Ramachandran… Read More


What’s At the Center of Your SoC Design Process?

What’s At the Center of Your SoC Design Process?
by Daniel Payne on 06-15-2020 at 10:00 am

IP SoC min

I love starting a new project from scratch, because there’s that optimistic feeling of having no constraints and being able to creatively express myself and get the job done right this time. For SoC designs today there are teams of engineers and maybe a program manager plus a marketing person that define the features, budget… Read More


Automating the Analysis of Power MOSFET Designs

Automating the Analysis of Power MOSFET Designs
by Daniel Payne on 06-04-2020 at 10:00 am

ventilator

There’s a world of difference between our smart phones that are battery powered and pack billions of transistors, and power MOSFET devices that can be used in industrial applications, telecom, cloud computing and automotive where they could be run at a few hundred volts and up to 80A of current. I’ve read about one … Read More


High-Level Synthesis and Open Source Software Algorithms

High-Level Synthesis and Open Source Software Algorithms
by Daniel Payne on 05-07-2020 at 10:00 am

hls flow min

The DVCon conference and exhibition finished up in California just as the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic was ramping up in March, but at least they finished the conference by altering the schedule a bit. Umesh Sisodia, CEO at CircuitSutra Technologies presented at DVCON on the topic, Using High-Level Synthesis to Migrate OpenRead More


Webinar: Real-time In-Chip Monitoring to Boost multi-core AI, ML, DL Systems

Webinar: Real-time In-Chip Monitoring to Boost multi-core AI, ML, DL Systems
by Daniel Payne on 04-28-2020 at 10:00 am

hot spots

During the COVID-19 pandemic I’m using Zoom and attending more webinars to keep updated on semiconductor industry trends, and one huge trend is the importance of AI applied to SoCs. Using more cores to handle ML and DL makes sense, but then how do you keep the chips within their power and reliability limits while at the same … Read More


CEO Interview: Jason Xing of Empyrean Software

CEO Interview: Jason Xing of Empyrean Software
by Daniel Payne on 04-24-2020 at 10:00 am

empyrean

It’s been about seven years since Randy Smith last interviewed Jason Xing, the President/CEO of North America for Empyrean Software, so the timing felt good for a fresh update. I’ve been watching Empyrean at DAC for several years now, and have come away impressed with their growth and focus on some difficult IC design… Read More


Project-Centric Design Process, or IP-centric

Project-Centric Design Process, or IP-centric
by Daniel Payne on 04-14-2020 at 10:00 am

projects

How do most IC design teams organize their work during the design process?

Most design teams would say that they organize their work into a project-centric view, and that at the beginning of the process use a tool for requirements management, maybe a bug tracker, or some design management tool. On the four IC designs that I worked … Read More


Mixed-Signal Debugging Gets a Boost

Mixed-Signal Debugging Gets a Boost
by Daniel Payne on 03-30-2020 at 6:00 am

starvision pro

Having the right tool for the job at hand is always a joy, and when your IC project involves RTL code, gates, transistors and even parasitic interconnect, then you need some EDA tool help for debugging and finding out why your design behaves the way it is. An FAE named Sujit Roy did a conference call with me last week to show what StarVisionRead More


Viewing the Largest IC Layout Files Quickly

Viewing the Largest IC Layout Files Quickly
by Daniel Payne on 03-10-2020 at 6:00 am

Skipper, Empyrean

The old adage, “Time is money”, certainly rings true today for IC designers, so the entire EDA industry has focused on this challenging goal of making tools that help speed up design and physical verification tasks like DRC (Design Rule Checks) and LVS (Layout Versus Schematic). Sure, the big three EDA vendors have… Read More