LIDAR is a controversial topic, with even Elon Musk weighing in on whether it will ever be feasible for use in self driving cars. His contention is that the sensors will remain too expensive and potentially be unreliable because of their mechanical complexity. However, each of the sensors available for autonomous driving have … Read More
Author: Tom Simon
Synopsys and Synaptics Talk About Securing the Connected Home
Like many people, I have been adding automation to my home, and the number of connected devices I use has slowly but steadily increased. These include light bulbs, cameras, switches, a thermostat, a voice assistant, etc. Between them, they know when I am home or away, and have the ability to record images and sound. In addition to … Read More
HBM or CDM ESD Verification – You Need Both
In the realm of ESD protection, Charged Device Model (CDM) is becoming the biggest challenge. Of course, Human Body Model (HBM) is still essential, and needs to be used when verifying chips. However, a number of factors are raising the potential losses that CDM events can cause relative to HBM. These factors fall into two categories:… Read More
Automotive Market Pushing Test Tool Capabilities
It’s easy to imagine that the main impetus for automotive electronics safety standards like ISO 26262 is the emergence of autonomous driving technology. However, even cars that do not offer this capability rely heavily on electronics for many critical systems. These include engine control, braking, crash sensors, and stability… Read More
Dynamic Spectrum Allocation to Help Crowded IoT Airwaves
Radio frequency bandwidth has become a precious commodity, with communications companies paying top dollar for prized pieces of the spectrum. However, many radio bands are not often used efficiently. Many existing radio protocols exchange data on a fixed pair of frequencies, tying up those frequencies for other users. When… Read More
Upcoming HBM and CDM ESD Verification Seminar in Taiwan
The electrostatic discharge that occurs in lightening, as seen in the picture below, can cause serious damage to the objects on the ground. Over centuries mankind has devised ways, such as lighting rods and arresters, to deflect the energy so it is dissipated harmlessly. The same drama plays out on modern semiconductors due to … Read More
#56thDAC Discussion on Calibre in the Cloud Brings Sunshine to SOC Developers
It was inevitable that EDA applications would meet the cloud. EDA has a long history of creating some of the most daunting compute challenges. This arises from employing current generation chips to design the next generation chips. Despite growing design complexity, many tools have kept pace and even reduced runtimes from generation… Read More
A Practical Approach to Modeling ESD Protection Devices for Circuit Simulation
Lurking inside of every Mosfet is a parasitic bipolar junction transistor (BJT). Of course, in normal circuit operation the BJT does not play a role in the device operation. Accordingly, SPICE models for Mosfets do not behave well when the BJT is triggered. However, these models work just fine for most purposes. The one important… Read More
Siemens Shows SOC Simulation Solution for Self-Driving Vehicles
Ever since the early days of computing there has always been a large distinction between ‘regular’ computing and real time computing – where special care had to be made to deal with unordered and asynchronous events. Back then a system typically consisted of a handful of sensors and perhaps some electromechanical devices.… Read More
Magillem offers a practical UPF power flow
We already know that IP-Xact is extremely useful for managing IP and SOC design specifications, yet it may come as a surprise to learn that it also can be used to form the basis of a power flow too. There are design tools that read UPF to help implement and verify designs, however it can be extremely useful to understand the interplay … Read More
More Headwinds – CHIPS Act Chop? – Chip Equip Re-Shore? Orders Canceled & Fab Delay