Timing Closure for ECOs in your SOC Design

Timing Closure for ECOs in your SOC Design
by Daniel Payne on 03-14-2012 at 1:07 pm

I decided to attend a webinar today hosted by Synopsys, “Streamline Your PrimeTime ECO Flow For Fastest Setup, Hold and Timing DRC Closure.” The format was to present slides first then hold for questions until the end. Enough time was spent on questions which made this webinar different than most other webinars I’ve… Read More


More Growth in EDA

More Growth in EDA
by Daniel Payne on 03-12-2012 at 6:53 pm

I love to read good news about growth in EDA especially when our industry has seen single-digit growth for several years now. What I read on March 8th from ClioSoft stated a 53% increase in bookings for 2011, now that’s what I call growth.

ClioSoft provides Hardware Configuration Management (HCM) software to EDA users typically… Read More


Book Review – iWoz

Book Review – iWoz
by Daniel Payne on 03-12-2012 at 11:01 am

I bought my first personal computer in 1979, it was a Radio Shack TRS-80 Model I with just 16KB of RAM, a BW monitor and casette tape for storage. The reason that I chose the Radio Shack over the Apple II was that it cost less, so I was always interested in Apple products and the engineers behind them since the early days. It was pure delight… Read More


IC Custom IP Blocks – EM and IR Drop Effects

IC Custom IP Blocks – EM and IR Drop Effects
by Daniel Payne on 03-06-2012 at 5:33 pm

Designing custom IP blocks is a challenge at the transistor-level and I wanted to learn what the recommended methodology and EDA tool flow was at Synopsys. They have a webinar that you can register for and it takes 30 minutes to learn what they have to say, or you can read a White Paper. If you cannot spare that much time, then my summary… Read More


HSPICE Users Talking about Their Circuit Simulation Experience

HSPICE Users Talking about Their Circuit Simulation Experience
by Daniel Payne on 02-28-2012 at 4:46 pm

tony todesco

HSPICE users gathered in January 2012 at the HSPICE SIG(Special Interest Group) to talk about their experiences using this circuit simulator for a variety of IC and signal integrity issues. I wasn’t able to attend in person however I did watch the video and wanted to summarize what I heard:… Read More


Seminar on IC Yield Optimization at DATE on March 14th

Seminar on IC Yield Optimization at DATE on March 14th
by Daniel Payne on 02-22-2012 at 3:59 pm

My first chip design at Intel was a DRAM and we had a 5% yield problem caused by electromigration issues, yes, you can have EM issues even with 6um NMOS technology. We had lots of questions but precious few answers on how to pinpoint and eliminate the source of yield loss. Fortunately, with the next generation of DRAM quickly introduced… Read More