Designing the Right Architecture Using HLS

Designing the Right Architecture Using HLS
by Pawan Fangaria on 09-17-2014 at 9:05 am

With the advent of HLS tools, general notion which comes to mind is that okay, there’s an automated tool which can optimize your design description written in C++/SystemC and provide you a perfect RTL. In real life, it’s not so, any design description needs hardware designer’s expertise to adopt right algorithm and architecture… Read More


Optimize Your Interconnect & Design at System Level for Best Results

Optimize Your Interconnect & Design at System Level for Best Results
by Pawan Fangaria on 09-16-2014 at 7:00 am

As the SoC design size, complexity and functionality keeps on increasing with multiple IPs packed together and design time and time-to-market keeps on decreasing amid critical constraints on PPA, there is no other alternative than to do the design first-time-right not to miss the window of opportunity. And that could be possible… Read More


Expert Tool to View and Debug Design Issues at Spice Level

Expert Tool to View and Debug Design Issues at Spice Level
by Pawan Fangaria on 09-12-2014 at 7:00 am

Spice view of a design, block or fragment of the design is probably the lowest level of functional description of a circuit in terms of transistors, resistors, capacitors, interconnect and so on, which in several ways acts as an ultimate proof of pudding for any semiconductor design before manufacturing. However, it’s generally… Read More


Smart Collaborative Design Reduces Business Risk

Smart Collaborative Design Reduces Business Risk
by Pawan Fangaria on 09-10-2014 at 4:00 pm

The semiconductor design industry is ever challenged with increasing chip density, manufacturing complexity with cutting-edge technologies, accommodating multiple IPs with different functionalities from various sources, optimizing power, performance and cost, maximizing manufacturability and reliability and still… Read More


A Comprehensive Power Analysis Solution for SoC+Package

A Comprehensive Power Analysis Solution for SoC+Package
by Pawan Fangaria on 09-08-2014 at 4:00 pm

Since power has become a critical factor in semiconductor chip design, the stress is towards decreasing supply voltage to reduce power consumption. However, the threshold voltage to switch devices cannot go down beyond a certain limit and these results in an extremely narrow margin for noise between the two. And that gets further… Read More


Design & EDA Collaboration Advances Mixed-Signal Verification through VCS AMS

Design & EDA Collaboration Advances Mixed-Signal Verification through VCS AMS
by Pawan Fangaria on 09-07-2014 at 8:00 pm

Last week it was a rare opportunity for me to attend a webinar where an SoC design house, a leading IP provider and a leading EDA tool provider joined together to present on how the tool capabilities are being used for advanced mixed-signal simulation of large designs, faster with accuracy. It’s always been a struggle to combine design… Read More


SmartScan Addresses Test Challenges of SoCs

SmartScan Addresses Test Challenges of SoCs
by Pawan Fangaria on 09-04-2014 at 4:00 pm

With advancement of semiconductor technologies, ever increasing sizes of SoCs bank on higher densities of design rather than giving any leeway towards increasing chip area and package sizes; a phenomenon often overlooked. The result is – larger designs with lesser number of pins bonded out of ever shrinking package sizes;… Read More


Google Glass with purpose, not just another smart wear

Google Glass with purpose, not just another smart wear
by Pawan Fangaria on 09-02-2014 at 4:00 pm

Last year or earlier (when it was in the making), when I first heard of Google Glass, I was of the opinion that it’s yet another device with a screen in front of your eyes, with wearable glasses through which you can see the virtual extension of reality you are interacting with (here is a demo); a technology called Augmented Reality (… Read More


Design Collaboration across Multiple Sites

Design Collaboration across Multiple Sites
by Pawan Fangaria on 09-02-2014 at 12:00 pm

Any SoC or IC design project, whether implemented at the same design site or multiple sites requires some data management tools to manage things such as a central data repository, revision management of files, etc., for effective co-ordination of work among different team members. Given the challenge of meeting the shrinking… Read More


Know All About ESD and Save Your Chips & Systems

Know All About ESD and Save Your Chips & Systems
by Pawan Fangaria on 08-24-2014 at 7:30 pm

In this age of electronics, especially with so many different types of human held devices and more upcoming wearable devices, it’s utmost important to protect the massive circuitry inside those tiny parts in the devices from ESD related failures. The protection needs to happen at all stages – cells inside the chips, package… Read More