AI and machine learning are two popular buzz words in the high-tech daily news, so you should be getting used to hearing about them by now. What I hadn’t realized was that EDA companies are starting to use machine learning techniques, and specifically targeted at the daunting and compute intensive task of creating SPICE models… Read More
Author: Daniel Payne
Finding Transistor-level Defects Inside of Standard Cells
In the earliest days of IC design the engineering work was always done at the transistor-level, and then over time the abstraction level moved upward to gate-level, cell-level, RTL level, IP reuse, and high-level modeling abstractions. The higher levels of abstraction have allowed systems to be integrated into an SoC that can… Read More
Four Steps for Logic Synthesis in FPGA Designs
I remember meeting Ken McElvain at Silicon Compilers for the first time back in the 1980’s, he was a gifted EDA tool developer that did a lot of coding including logic synthesis, a cycle-based simulator and ATPG. Mentor Graphics acquired Silicon Compilers with Ken included, and he continued to create another logic synthesis… Read More
SoC Integration using IP Lifecycle Management Methodology
Small EDA companies often focus on a single point tool and then gradually over time they add new, complementary tools to start creating more of a sub-flow to help you get that next SoC project out on time. The most astute EDA companies often choose to partner with other like-minded companies to create tools that work together well,… Read More
TCAD Simulation of Organic Optoelectronic Devices
In my office there are plenty of LED displays for me to look at throughout the day: three 24″ displays from Viewsonic, a 15″ display from Apple, an iPad, a Samsung Galaxy Note 4, a Nexus tablet, a Garmin 520 bike computer, and a temperature display. LED and OLED displays are ubiquitous in all sorts of consumer electronics,… Read More
Analog, Low-power Optimization at SMIC
Talking with actual IC designers is always fascinating to me, because these engineers are the unsung heroes that enable our modern day world of consumer and industrial electronics. Too often we only hear from the CEO or other C-level executives in the press about their own companies, products, services and vision. I recently had… Read More
CES 2017, Semiconductors and Cycling
It’s back, that giant consumer electronics trade show CES 2017, held every January in Las Vegas with too many new product introductions to mention in one blog, so I’ll take a more focused look at what’s new for cycling.
Smart Bike
We all know what a smart phone is, but what could a smart bike be? The Chinese company… Read More
Solving a Murder Case with IoT Devices
I watch a lot of Netflix and there are so many detective movies and series for me to enjoy where I try and match wits with the bad guys and figure out who is guilty a few seconds before the law enforcement characters do. On TV and with our movies there is often critical evidence extracted from desktop computers, laptops, hard drives, smart… Read More
Real Time Virtualization, How Hard Can it Be?
My first exposure to running something virtual on a computer was when I decided to run the Windows OS on my MacBook Pro using software provided by Parallels. With that virtualization I was able to run the Quicken app under Windows on my MacBook Pro, along with the popular Internet Explorer web browser. The app performance on virtualized… Read More
Driverless Cars and our Global Economy
While traveling to California this year I had my first Uber trip after a concierge in Santa Clara recommended it as the best way to get to the airport, instead of the usual and expensive taxi ride. Later in the year I had my first Lyft ride after my road bike broke down and I needed a ride back home. Our transportation choices are shifting,… Read More










Intel: Pushing EMIB Forward: Design Methodology Insights with Synopsys Tools