DC converter circuit efficiency can have a big effect on the battery life of mobile devices. It also can affect power efficiency for wall-power operated circuits. Even before parasitics are factored in, converter circuit designers have a lot of issues to contend with. Optimizing circuit operation is essential for giving consumers… Read More
Author: Tom Simon
Converter Circuit Optimization Gets Powerful New Tool
AI processing requirements reveal weaknesses in current methods
The traditional ways of boosting computing throughput are either to increase operating frequency or to use multiprocessing. The industry has done a good job of applying these techniques to maintain a steady increase in performance. However, there is a discontinuity in the needs for processing power. Artificial Intelligence… Read More
ISO 26262: Automotive electronics safety gets an update in 2018
In the field of automotive electronics, the year 2011 was a long time ago. So, it is about time that the initial ISO 26262 specification that was adopted back then gets an update. The latest version will be known as ISO26262:2018 and will expand the scope of the original to cover more types of vehicles. It will add an entire section on… Read More
Artificial Intelligence calls for Smart Interconnect
Artificial Intelligence based systems are driving a metamorphosis in computing, and consequently precipitating a large shift in SOC design. AI training is often done in the cloud and has requirements for handling huge amounts of data with forward and backward data connections. Inference usually occurs at the edge and must be… Read More
Sometimes a Solver is a Suitable Solution
Traditional, rule based, RC extractors rely on a substantial base of assumptions, which are increasingly proving unreliable. Having accurate RC extraction results for parasitic R’s and C’s is extremely important for ensuring proper circuit operation and for optimizing performance and power. Advanced process nodes are making… Read More
Safety Critical Applications Require Onboard Aging Monitoring
When it comes to safety, ISO 26262 is the spec that comes to mind for many people. However, there are layers of specifications that enable the level of safety required for automotive and other systems that need high reliability. For any application requiring safety, test is a critical element. A key spec for SOC test is IEEE 1500, … Read More
Schematic porting – the key to analog design reuse
At the beginning of every project the one of the first questions that ought to be asked is whether there blocks from previous designs that can be reused. On the surface this seems pretty obvious. The wrinkle in this is that reusability varies a lot based on the design type and the effort that a team is willing to expend to bring a design… Read More
Edge Devices Rely on Intelligent MEMS Based Sensors
MEMS sensors play a huge role in intelligent systems these days. Mobile and IoT devices would essentially be blind if not for the rich variety of MEMS sensors integrated into them. The MEMS sensor market is growing rapidly, topping $10B in 2016 and slated to exceed $20B by 2020. MEMS is also growing in the RF market, where they are providing… Read More
Free Webinar: Silvaco 3D Solver Based Extraction for Device and Circuit Designers
Designers spend a lot of time looking at their layouts in 2D. This is done naturally because viewing in 2D is faster and simpler than in 3D. It helps that humans are good at extrapolating from 2D to 3D. Analysis software, such as extraction software also spend a lot of time looking at layouts in 2D. While this is fine for approximate results,… Read More
New Architectures for Automotive Intelligence
My first car was a used 1971 Volvo 142 and probably did not contain more than a handful of transistors. I used to joke that it could easily survive the EMP from a nuclear explosion. Now, of course, cars contain dozens or more processors, DSP’s and other chips containing millions of transistors. It’s widely expected that the number … Read More
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