High Level Synthesis Gets Stronger

High Level Synthesis Gets Stronger
by Daniel Payne on 02-24-2015 at 1:00 pm

High Level Synthesis (HLS) tools have been around for at least two decades now, and you may recall that about one year ago Cadence acquired Forte. The whole promise of HLS is to provide more design and verification productivity by raising the design abstraction from RTL code up to SystemC, C or C++ code. With any acquisition it is natural… Read More


Product Review: Google Chromecast

Product Review: Google Chromecast
by Daniel Payne on 02-22-2015 at 1:00 pm

Our household members own both Apple and Android devices, so we wanted a way to share our photos or videos on the Samsung TV. The device we ended up buying is called Chromecast from Google, and it’s a small media streaming device that plugs into an HDMI port on our TV. We’ve had Chromecast for about six weeks now.… Read More


More Test Points are Better

More Test Points are Better
by Daniel Payne on 02-14-2015 at 7:00 am

I got really involved in testability back at CrossCheck in the 1990’s when they designed a way for Gate Arrays to have 100% observability without any Design For Test (DFT) requirements on designers. The Japanese Gate Array companies loved this approach and their customers enjoyed the highest test coverage without being… Read More


Integrated Spec Design & Documentation for SoC

Integrated Spec Design & Documentation for SoC
by Daniel Payne on 02-08-2015 at 1:00 pm

One challenge in SoC projects is maintaining consistency between the specification, design and documentation throughout the product lifecycle. Imagine the chaos if your specification for power is 300 mW, the design is actually 350 mW and the documentation promises 250 mW. Traditionally the design and documentation process… Read More


Product Review: Bose – SoundTrue Around-Ear Headphones

Product Review: Bose – SoundTrue Around-Ear Headphones
by Daniel Payne on 02-07-2015 at 7:00 am

My old headphones with microphone lost a channel, so it was time to upgrade and I went shopping for something that had high fidelity and fit over my ears, instead of on my ears. After some online research I opted for the Bose headphones, because that brand has been around for decades, they offer many models to choose from, and are readily… Read More


What’s New with Static Timing Analysis

What’s New with Static Timing Analysis
by Daniel Payne on 01-30-2015 at 7:00 am

When I hear the phrase Static Timing Analysis (STA) the first EDA tool that comes to mind is PrimeTimefrom Synopsys, and this type of tool is essential to reaching timing closure for digital designs by identifying paths that are limiting chip performance. Sunil Walia, PrimeTime ADV marketing lead spoke with me by phone on Thursday… Read More


Shorten the Learning Curve for High Level Synthesis

Shorten the Learning Curve for High Level Synthesis
by Daniel Payne on 01-27-2015 at 4:30 pm

When chip designers moved from a gate-level design methodology to coding with RTL there was a learning curve involved, and the same thing happens when you move from RTL to High Level Synthesis (HLS) using C++ or SystemC coding. One great shortcut to this learning curve is the use of pre-defined library functions. I just heard about… Read More


Windows on a TV

Windows on a TV
by Daniel Payne on 01-23-2015 at 12:00 am

This month I upgraded my TV at home with a 40″ LED set from Samsung, Denon AV receiver and Samsung Blu-ray player. Also being a Google fan I bought a Chromecast device.




At CES there were multiple announcements from Intel, and one that caught my eye was the Intel Compute Stick because it reminded me of the Google Chromecast device… Read More


Managing Semiconductor IP

Managing Semiconductor IP
by Daniel Payne on 01-21-2015 at 5:00 pm

SemiWiki blogger Eric Esteve does an excellent job writing about all of the semiconductor IP available, and the popularity of IP is only growing more each year. Here’s a projection from IBS about semiconductor IP showing revenues of $4.7B by 2020:

Analyst Gary Smith divides IP into three broad categories: Functional, Foundation… Read More


Not All RTL Synthesis Approaches are the Same

Not All RTL Synthesis Approaches are the Same
by Daniel Payne on 01-20-2015 at 7:00 pm

My first experience with logic synthesis was at Silicon Compilers in the late 1980s using a tool called Genesil. Process technology since that time has moved from 3 um down to 20 nm, so there are new challenges for RTL synthesis. Today you can find logic synthesis tools being offered by the big three in EDA: Synopsys, Cadence, MentorRead More