Academia and TCAD Grow Closer

Academia and TCAD Grow Closer
by Daniel Payne on 12-02-2015 at 12:00 pm

On my first trip to Austria for EDA business I traveled by car from Germany, and I couldn’t wait to see how fast we would travel on the fabled Autobahn. Oddly enough it was summertime and the Autobahn was filled with vacationing families driving cars with shiny, aluminum campers in tow, so our car only traveled about 60 mph, nothing… Read More


An Easier Way to Reach Design Closure for SoC

An Easier Way to Reach Design Closure for SoC
by Daniel Payne on 11-30-2015 at 12:00 pm

It’s really challenging to reach design closure of an SoC by meeting timing constraints, staying within the power budget, tracking progress, communicating within the team, minimizing the floorplan, maximizing manufacturability and eliminating hotspots. Most SoC design teams have EDA tools from multiple vendors,… Read More


Smartphone Trends Revealed

Smartphone Trends Revealed
by Daniel Payne on 11-20-2015 at 4:00 pm

I’ve been using cell phones since the 1980’s and I’ll never forget my first one, the Motorola DynaTAC (aka Brick Phone). The data plan was paid for by my EDA employer, and it did make me more productive because clients, prospects and co-workers could get a hold of me by simply dialing, not having to go through a secretary… Read More


Moore’s Law and Silicon Forest

Moore’s Law and Silicon Forest
by Daniel Payne on 11-04-2015 at 4:00 pm

When I first moved to Oregon in 1978 the largest industry was forestry, but then the endangered Spotted Owl was found and that put an end to many forestry companies and decimated the economy of many rural cities. Strangely enough it turns out that the Spotted Owl was found in great numbers across multiple states, so it never should’ve… Read More


How Can Big Data and EDA Tools Help?

How Can Big Data and EDA Tools Help?
by Daniel Payne on 10-30-2015 at 12:00 pm

Big data is a headline phrase that I see appear almost weekly now in my newsfeed, so it’s probably time that I start paying more attention to the growing trend because it does impact how technology-driven, EDA tool flows are being used. From my last trip to DAC I recall only two companies that were really focused on system-level… Read More


Three New Things from ITC this year

Three New Things from ITC this year
by Daniel Payne on 10-23-2015 at 12:00 pm

The NFL has its annual Super Bowl contest each year, EDA vendors attend DAC, then the test folks attend ITCwhich was in Anaheim a few weeks ago. I’ve marketed ATGP, BIST and DFT tools before so I like to keep updated on what’s happening at conferences like ITC. Robert Ruiz from Synopsys spoke with me by phone to provide … Read More


Learning about 3D Integration of ICs and Systems

Learning about 3D Integration of ICs and Systems
by Daniel Payne on 10-15-2015 at 4:00 pm

We blog a lot about Moore’s Law, and even “More than Moore” where 3D integration of ICs and systems are used to get lower product costs. One big challenge with 3D integration of ICs is that most EDA software was really intended only for abstracting at 2D or 2.5D structures. Over the past several years there have … Read More


Five Areas at #53DAC That Require Your Contribution

Five Areas at #53DAC That Require Your Contribution
by Daniel Payne on 10-09-2015 at 12:00 pm

The 53rd DAC (Design Automation Conference) is some 8 months away, however to make this conference and exhibit another success requires planning, people and awareness. That’s where you come in, because you can contribute your expertise in five different areas:

[LIST=1]

  • Panels – broad interest, interesting, timely,
  • Read More

    12 Reasons to Attend this Annual User Group Meeting for Transistor-level IC Designers

    12 Reasons to Attend this Annual User Group Meeting for Transistor-level IC Designers
    by Daniel Payne on 10-07-2015 at 7:00 am

    My first job out of college was transistor-level circuit design of DRAMs at Intel, so I’ve continued to be fascinated with both the craft and science of designing, optimizing, verifying and debugging custom ICs. Last October I traveled to Munich, Germany to attend a two day user group meeting for engineers using tools from… Read More


    Phablet Impact on PC Sales

    Phablet Impact on PC Sales
    by Daniel Payne on 09-25-2015 at 4:00 pm

    Apple iPhone 6 and 6s users are recent converts to the latest growth trend in smart phones, large screens at 5.5″ in size and aiming even higher each year. I’ve owned a 5.5″ smart phone from Samsung for some 3 years now, so have immensely enjoyed the larger screen size to get my daily work done with: web browsing, … Read More