Two weeks ago I blogged about analog verification and it started a discussion with 16 comments, so l’ve found that our readers have an interest in this topic. For decades now the Digital IC design community has used and benefited from regression testing as a way to measure both design quality and progress, ensuring that first… Read More
Author: Daniel Payne
IC Place and Route Perspective from Users at DAC
One of the most useful ways to learn about an EDA tool is to talk with other users that have experience with that tool. IC Place and Route tools are complex and yet necessary to implement every SoC designed today, so at DAC in just two weeks you have a chance to hear first-hand from several P&R tool users. To get a better idea about these… Read More
Layout-based ESD Check Methodology with Fast, Full-chip Static and Macro-level Dynamic
Nvidia designs some of the most powerful graphics chips and systems in the world, so I’m always eager to learn more about their IC design methodology. This week I’ve had the chance to talk with Ting Ku, Director of Engineering at Nvidia about his DAC talkin the Apache booth in exactly two weeks from today. Registration… Read More
Transistor-Level Update from Cadence at DAC
My 8 years as an IC circuit designer were at the transistor-level, so if that interests you as well then consider what there is to see from Cadence at DAC this year. IC design technology is changing quickly, so keeping up to date is important for your job security and continual education goals.
Here’s what I would recommend attending… Read More
SoC Optimization Using FPGA Prototyping
As an engineer I learn new concepts best by seeing a demonstration, in this case it was a demo of how to optimize SoC performance by using an ASIC prototyping debug process. SoC designers that use FPGAs to prototype their new ASIC often encounter debug issues, like:
- Limited observability of internal nets required for debug, maybe
RTL Power Estimation at DAC
If you design with ARMCores and need to estimate dynamic power early in the flow, then consider what STMicroelectronics has done with their high performance, power-efficient subsystems. Anne Merlande is a Processor Micro Architecture technical expert, and will be presenting in Booth #1346 at DACon June 4th, 2:00PM. Her topic… Read More
IC Design with No Clocks Used in a SMART Card
My IC design career started at Intel with DRAM chips, so I’m very familiar with clockless design because we used self-timed techniques to get maximum performance. I remember blogging about an asynchronous design company called Tiempo back in 2010, while blogging at Chip Design Magazine. A few weeks ago there was a press … Read More
Power, Noise and Reliability Consideration for Advanced Automotive and Networking ICs
I love it when my Acura goes months and months without any major repair issue or computer-related glitches. Cars or networks only become reliable when they are designed and built for reliability. Freescale designs SoCs for advanced automotive and networking applications, and their engineers know much about the topics of power,… Read More
Chip and I/O Modeling for System-level Power Noise Analysis and Optimization
Cornelia Golovanovworks at LSI Corp in Pennsylvania and is an EMI expert that provides EDA tool and methodology advise to design groups. She earned a PhD in microelectronics and radioelectricity from the Institut national polytechnique de Grenoble, and joined Lucent out of school 12 years ago. We had a chance to talk by phone about… Read More
UVM/SystemVerilog: Verification and Debugging
At DAC in just three weeks you can learn about which EDA vendors are supporting the latest UVM 1.1d (Universal Verification Methodology) standard as defined by Accellera. One of those EDA vendors is Aldec, and they have a 45 minute technical session that you can register for online. Space will fill up quickly, so get signed up sooner… Read More
More Headwinds – CHIPS Act Chop? – Chip Equip Re-Shore? Orders Canceled & Fab Delay