Verification Execution: When will we get it right?

Verification Execution: When will we get it right?
by Daniel Payne on 02-06-2014 at 7:50 pm

Verification technologist Hemendra Talesaraattended a conference in Austin and asked me to post this article on verification execution for him as a blog. I first met Hemendra when he worked at XtremeEDA, and now he works at Synapse Design Automation – a design services company.
“In theory there is no difference between … Read More


Power and Thermal Modeling Approach for Embedded and Automotive using ESL Tools

Power and Thermal Modeling Approach for Embedded and Automotive using ESL Tools
by Daniel Payne on 01-31-2014 at 7:04 pm

Did you know that an S-class Mercedes Benz can use 100 microprocessor-based electronic control units (ECUs) networking throughout the vehicle that run 20-100 million lines of code (Source: IEEE)?


2014 Mercedes-Benz CLA

Here’s a quick list of all the places that you will find software controlling hardware in an automobile:… Read More


Update on a Space-Based Router for IC Design

Update on a Space-Based Router for IC Design
by Daniel Payne on 01-31-2014 at 11:50 am

When I started my IC design career back in 1978 all IC routing was done manually, today however we have many automated approaches to IC routing that save time and do a more thorough job than manual routing. To get an update on space-based routers for IC design I connected with Yuval Shay at Cadence today. The basic idea behind a spaced-based… Read More


A Brief History of the Apple iPod

A Brief History of the Apple iPod
by Daniel Payne on 01-28-2014 at 9:58 pm

In January 2001 we had a new American president, George W. Bush, I was working at Mentor Graphics, and Apple introduced an MP3 player called the iPod with a hard drive capable of holding 1,000 songs. In the previous decades we enjoyed portable music from tape-based, CD, or mini-CD devices like the Sony Walkman. The first several generations… Read More


SPICE Circuit Simulator Gets a Jolt

SPICE Circuit Simulator Gets a Jolt
by Daniel Payne on 01-25-2014 at 11:28 am

I’ve been using SPICE circuit simulators since 1978, both internally and commercially developed, and a lot has changed since the early days where netlists were simulated in batch mode on time-share mainframes. We used to wait overnight for our simulations to complete, and in the morning had to pickup our output results … Read More


A Power Optimization Flow at the RTL Design Stage

A Power Optimization Flow at the RTL Design Stage
by Daniel Payne on 01-21-2014 at 10:20 pm

SoC designers can code RTL, run logic synthesis, perform place and route, extract the interconnect, then simulate to measure power values. Though this approach is very accurate, it’s also very late in the implementation flow to start thinking about how to actually optimize a design for the lowest power while meeting all… Read More


Semiconductor IP and Correct-by-construction Workspaces

Semiconductor IP and Correct-by-construction Workspaces
by Daniel Payne on 01-21-2014 at 8:00 pm

SoC hardware designers could learn a thing or two from the world of software development, especially when it comes to the topic of managing complexity. Does that mean that hardware designers should literally use a software development environment, and force fit hardware design into file and class-based software methodologies?… Read More


Special Interest Group for HSPICE at DesignCon in Two Weeks

Special Interest Group for HSPICE at DesignCon in Two Weeks
by Daniel Payne on 01-13-2014 at 8:00 pm

DesignCon brings together engineers from around the world that are interested in IC design, package design and board design, plus the signal integrity issues of creating high-speed systems. In just two weeks there’s a Special Interest Group(SIG) just for users of HSPICE in their tool flow, and it meets for three hours during… Read More


Social Media at Aldec

Social Media at Aldec
by Daniel Payne on 01-09-2014 at 5:38 pm

I’ve been blogging about EDA and Semiconductor companies using social media to create new ways to talk and listen to engineers, so today I looked at Aldec and how they are using social media. Aldec offers EDA products for: FPGA Simulation, functional verification, emulation, and MIL/Aero verification. Their Home page … Read More