Minimize the Cost of Testing ARM® Processor-based Designs and Other Multicore SoCs

Minimize the Cost of Testing ARM® Processor-based Designs and Other Multicore SoCs
by Daniel Payne on 07-15-2013 at 1:37 pm

On my first job out of college as an IC design engineer I was surprised to discover that a major cost of chips was in the amount of time spent on the tester before being shipped. That is still true today, so how would you keep your tester time down, test coverage high and with a minimum number of pins when using multiple processors on a single… Read More


Best Practices for Using DRC, LVS and Parasitic Extraction – on YouTube

Best Practices for Using DRC, LVS and Parasitic Extraction – on YouTube
by Daniel Payne on 07-10-2013 at 1:21 pm

EDA companies produce a wealth of content to help IC engineers get the best out of their tools through several means:

  • Reference Manuals
  • User Guides
  • Tutorials
  • Workshops
  • Seminars
  • Training Classes
  • Phone Support
  • AE visits
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Full Chip IR Drop Analysis using Distributed Multi Processing

Full Chip IR Drop Analysis using Distributed Multi Processing
by Daniel Payne on 07-02-2013 at 6:56 pm

IR drop analysis across your board, package and SoC ensures that your Power Delivery Network (PDN) is robust, and that your system will function to spec. There are both static and dynamic approaches to IR drop analysis of a full-chip with billions of transistors, while the dynamic approach produces the most accurate results compared… Read More


Design Test and Regression Management of SoCs

Design Test and Regression Management of SoCs
by Daniel Payne on 06-28-2013 at 2:26 pm

Eric Peersfounded Missing Link tools in 2008 and his company was acquiredby Methodics in 2012, so I met with him at DAC to understand how their EDA tools for Design, Test and Regression Management are used in an SoC design.


Eric Peers, MethodicsRead More


HW Prototyping and HLS at DAC

HW Prototyping and HLS at DAC
by Daniel Payne on 06-28-2013 at 12:20 pm

I love it when EDA companies send their engineers to DAC because I learn more of the unvarnished truth about their products. I met with Bill Thomas of Aldec to get an update on their HW prototyping boards, then two NEC engineers to learn about High Level Synthesis.

HW Prototyping

Bill Thomas, Research Engineer at Aldec
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