Workshop: Embedded Applications and Kernels

Workshop: Embedded Applications and Kernels
by Daniel Payne on 06-19-2014 at 6:13 pm

Design Automation Conference Workshop on Suite of Embedded Applications and Kernels

In June, the first Suite of Embedded Applications and Kernels, or SEAK, workshop at the 2014 Design Automation Conference in San Francisco introduced a new Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency program in the area of embedded system benchmarking… Read More


MEMS Update from DAC

MEMS Update from DAC
by Daniel Payne on 06-11-2014 at 11:32 am

DAC has an interesting mix of vendors each year, and some of them are outside of the expected digital, analog or IP space. Last Tuesday at DAC I visited a company called Coventor that has three product lines:

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An Update on Calibre at DAC

An Update on Calibre at DAC
by Daniel Payne on 06-09-2014 at 12:00 pm

Even though I live just 7 miles away from the Mentor Graphics corporate office in Oregon, I visited their DAC suite in San Francisco last week to get an update on Calibrefrom Michael White. The Calibre tools are used during IC verification and sign-off by performing DRC (Design Rule Checking) and LVS (Layout Versus Schematic).… Read More


IoT Breakfast Panel at DAC

IoT Breakfast Panel at DAC
by Daniel Payne on 06-03-2014 at 7:21 pm

Tuesday morning at DAC I enjoyed a free breakfast courtesy of Synopsysand GLOBALFOUNDRIESwhere I learned more about the emerging market of IoT, and what it means to semiconductor, EDA and IP vendors. Panelists included: Semico Research, HP, Synopsys, GLOBALFOUNDRIES and Broadcom. … Read More


High Sigma Yield Analysis and Optimization at DAC

High Sigma Yield Analysis and Optimization at DAC
by Daniel Payne on 06-02-2014 at 7:20 pm

When I hear the phrase “high sigma” I think of the EDA vendor Solido, however at DAC on Monday I visited another EDA company called MunEDAthat has several products of interest to transistor-level IC designers. I was able to speak with three different people from MunEDA and here’s what I learned.… Read More


Active Power Management in UPF Using SPICE, VHDL-AMS or Verilog-AMS

Active Power Management in UPF Using SPICE, VHDL-AMS or Verilog-AMS
by Daniel Payne on 05-31-2014 at 9:20 pm

My former co-worker, Kenneth Bakalar at Mentor Graphics is an expert in AMS modeling languages and UPFmethodology, so he recently teamed up with Eric Jeandeau to author an interesting white paper: Interpreting UPF for a Mixed-Signal Design Under Test. This white paper is based on a presentation made at DVCon earlier this year.… Read More