TSV Modeling Key for Next Generation SOC Module Performance

TSV Modeling Key for Next Generation SOC Module Performance
by Tom Simon on 04-20-2015 at 1:00 pm

The use of silicon interposers is growing. Several years ago Xilinx broke new ground by employing interposers in their Virtex®-7 H580T FPGA. Last August Samsung announced what they say is the first DDR4 module to use 3D TSV’s for enterprise servers. Their 64GB double data rate-4 modules will be used for high end computing where … Read More


Sidense NVM Scores Qualification on GLOBALFOUNDRIES 28nm SLP and HPP

Sidense NVM Scores Qualification on GLOBALFOUNDRIES 28nm SLP and HPP
by Tom Simon on 04-12-2015 at 7:00 am

A tremendous number of chips being designed for today’s products require some sort of onboard data storage. The size of these needs range from a handful of bytes, for trim and calibration storage, to something much more substantial like boot code storage. In both of these examples the storage ideally should be nonvolatile, with… Read More


ANSYS Event to Highlight Cutting Edge Technology Development

ANSYS Event to Highlight Cutting Edge Technology Development
by Tom Simon on 04-02-2015 at 5:00 pm

If you follow technology news, it would be hard to deny that we live in exciting times. In some ways there is an unparalleled amount of big and cool technology development going on right now. We all have followed the rise of Tesla Motors. They took over a long vacant US big-auto plant in Fremont and are reinventing the US automobile industry.… Read More


Intel and the Intel-of-Things

Intel and the Intel-of-Things
by Tom Simon on 03-22-2015 at 1:00 pm

When I joined Calma in 1982, Intel was a small company making microprocessor chips in a crowded marketplace. They had scored big with IBM who was using their 8088 in the very first personal computer. Wind River was a hatchling with David Wilner and Jerry Fiddler working out of a rented warehouse in Berkeley – I know, I hung out… Read More


Full Spectrum Analog FastSPICE Useful for RF Designs on Bulk CMOS

Full Spectrum Analog FastSPICE Useful for RF Designs on Bulk CMOS
by Tom Simon on 03-19-2015 at 1:00 pm

It has been about a year since the acquisition of Berkeley Design Automation by Mentor Graphics. Berkeley was doing quite well in the somewhat crowded SPICE simulator market. In many respects they broke new ground for high speed and accurate SPICE simulators. Since the acquisition we know that former Berkeley executives are now… Read More


Mapping Focus and Dose onto BEOL Fabrication Effects

Mapping Focus and Dose onto BEOL Fabrication Effects
by Tom Simon on 03-16-2015 at 7:00 pm

With today’s ArF based lithography using 193nm wavelength light, we are hard up against the limitations imposed by the Raleigh equation. Numerous clever things have been devised to maximize yield and reduce feature size. These include 2 beam lithography, multiple patterning, immersion litho processes to improve NA, thinner… Read More


Cadence’s New Implementation System Promises Better TAT and PPA

Cadence’s New Implementation System Promises Better TAT and PPA
by Tom Simon on 03-12-2015 at 1:00 am

On Tuesday Cadence made a big announcement about their new physical implementation offering, Innovus, during the keynote address at the CDNLive event in Silicon Valley. Cadence CEO Lip-Bu Tan alluded to it during his kick off talk, and next up Anirudh Devgan, Senior Vice President, Digital & Signoff Group, filled in more … Read More


On-Chip Power Integrity Analysis Moves to the Package

On-Chip Power Integrity Analysis Moves to the Package
by Tom Simon on 03-11-2015 at 1:00 am

Power regimes for contemporary SOC’s now include a large number of voltage domains. Rail voltages are matched closely to the performance and power requirements of various portions of the design. Indeed, some of the supply voltages are so low that the noise margins in these domains is exceedingly low. Higher voltage domains are… Read More


IoT Sensor Node Designs Call for Highly Integrated Flows

IoT Sensor Node Designs Call for Highly Integrated Flows
by Tom Simon on 02-21-2015 at 7:00 pm

Applications for IoT sensors are becoming more sophisticated, especially for industrial usage. Building optimal sensors for different applications requires multi-domain design, optimization and verification flows. The sensor devices are usually MEMS, and as such have electrical properties that need to be tailored to … Read More


MEMS Require 3D Field Solver for Accurate Cap Values

MEMS Require 3D Field Solver for Accurate Cap Values
by Tom Simon on 02-18-2015 at 9:00 am

MEMS devices have become extremely important and common. Freescale last year reported its combined MEMS shipments exceeded 2 billion units. If we just examine how many accelerometers we each probably own today, it is easy to see why the market for these products is growing so rapidly. The first and most obvious device is our cell… Read More