The Immensity of Software Development and the Challenges of Debugging (Part 3 of 4)

The Immensity of Software Development and the Challenges of Debugging (Part 3 of 4)
by Lauro Rizzatti on 10-03-2024 at 10:00 am

Immensity of SW development Part 3 Figure 1

Part 3 of this 4-part series analyzes methods and tools involved in debugging software at different layers of the software stack.

Software debugging involves identifying and resolving issues ranging from functional misbehaviors to crashes. The essential requirement for validating software programs is the ability to monitor… Read More


The Immensity of Software Development and the Challenges of Debugging Series (Part 2 of 4)

The Immensity of Software Development and the Challenges of Debugging Series (Part 2 of 4)
by Lauro Rizzatti on 09-25-2024 at 10:00 am

Immensity of SW development Part 2 Fig 1

Part 2 of this 4-part series reviews the role of virtual prototypes as stand-alone tools and their use in hybrid emulation for early software validation, a practice known as the “shift-left” methodology. It assesses the differences among these approaches, focusing on their pros and cons.

The Immensity of Software DevelopmentRead More


The Immensity of Software Development the Challenges of Debugging (Part 1 of 4)

The Immensity of Software Development the Challenges of Debugging (Part 1 of 4)
by Lauro Rizzatti on 07-15-2024 at 10:00 am

Immensity of SW development Fig 1

Part 1 of this 4-part series introduces the complexities of developing and bringing up the entire software stack on a System on Chip (SoC) or Multi-die system. It explores various approaches to deployment, highlighting their specific objectives and the unique challenges they address.

Introduction

As the saying goes, it’s… Read More


Reduce Risk, Ensure Compliance: Hardware-Assisted Verification for Design Certification

Reduce Risk, Ensure Compliance: Hardware-Assisted Verification for Design Certification
by Lauro Rizzatti on 06-12-2024 at 10:00 am

Reduce risk ensure compliance Figure 1
Prologue

Peter was running late for two reasons. First, he encountered unexpected heavy traffic and arrived ten minutes late for a crucial meeting with a customer to run a compliance test of his new 6G phone design prototyped on FPGAs. This prototype’s success was pivotal, as it could secure a significant purchase order.Read More


SoC Power Islands Verification with Hardware-assisted Verification

SoC Power Islands Verification with Hardware-assisted Verification
by Lauro Rizzatti on 05-14-2024 at 10:00 am

SoC Power Islands Figure 1

The ever-growing demand for longer battery life in mobile devices and energy savings in general have pushed power optimization to the top of designers’ concerns. While various techniques like multi-VT transistors and clock gating offer power savings at gate-level design, the real impact occurs at system level, where hardware… Read More


Early SoC Dynamic Power Analysis Needs Hardware Emulation

Early SoC Dynamic Power Analysis Needs Hardware Emulation
by Lauro Rizzatti on 04-16-2024 at 6:00 am

Early SoC Dynamic Power Analysis Figure 1
The relentless pursuit for maximizing performance in semiconductor development is now matched by the crucial need to minimize energy consumption.

Traditional simulation-based power analysis methods face insurmountable challenges to accurately capture complex designs activities in real-world scenarios. As the scale… Read More


Luc Burgun: EDA CEO, Now French Startup Investor

Luc Burgun: EDA CEO, Now French Startup Investor
by Lauro Rizzatti on 01-22-2024 at 6:00 am

Luc Burgun

When we last saw Luc Burgun’s name in the semiconductor industry, he was CEO and co-founder of EVE (Emulation and Verification Engineering), creator of the ZeBu (Zero Bugs) hardware emulator. EVE was acquired by Synopsys in 2012.

After the acquisition, Luc moved out of EDA and became an investor. Join me as I catch up with Luc and … Read More


Long-standing Roadblock to Viable L4/L5 Autonomous Driving and Generative AI Inference at the Edge

Long-standing Roadblock to Viable L4/L5 Autonomous Driving and Generative AI Inference at the Edge
by Lauro Rizzatti on 10-11-2023 at 6:00 am

Table I

Two recent software-based algorithmic technologies –– autonomous driving (ADAS/AD) and generative AI (GenAI) –– are keeping the semiconductor engineering community up at night.

While ADAS at Level 2 and Level 3 are on track, AD at Levels 4 and 5 are far from reality, causing a drop in venture capital enthusiasm and money. Today,… Read More


The Corellium Experience Moves to EDA

The Corellium Experience Moves to EDA
by Lauro Rizzatti on 10-25-2022 at 6:00 am

Corellium SemiWIki

Bill Neifert invited me to join him on Zoom recently to talk about his move to Corellium, a company known within the DevSecOps (development, security, operations) market. Developers and security groups use its virtualization technology to build, test, and secure mobile and IoT apps, firmware, and hardware.

Not knowing much … Read More


EDA Product Mix Changes as Hardware-Assisted Verification Gains Momentum

EDA Product Mix Changes as Hardware-Assisted Verification Gains Momentum
by Lauro Rizzatti on 08-23-2022 at 10:00 am

Semiwiki Hero Image Lauro Rizzatti

The Design Automation Conference, as always, is a good barometer on the state of EDA and my area of interest, verification. The recent DAC offered plenty of opportunities to check on trends and the status quo.

Remarkably, exhibitors and attendees were upbeat about the chip design landscape despite concerns about supply chain … Read More