IPs have an attack surface that indicates how they can be compromised in real world scenarios. Some portions of the attack surfaces are well known, others are discovered during analysis, testing or out in the field. SoCs that use large collections of IPs need a systematic and reliable way to determine the various security vulnerabilities… Read More
Electronic Design Automation
Design Perspectives on Intermittent Faults
Bugs are an inescapable reality in any but the most trivial designs and usually trace back to very deterministic causes – a misunderstanding of the intended spec or an incompletely thought-through implementation of some feature, either way leading to reliably reproducible failure under the right circumstances. You run diagnostics,… Read More
5G Deployments – The Analysis Requirements are Ginormous
The introduction of 5G communications support offers tremendous potential across a broad spectrum of applications (no pun intended). 5G is indeed quite encompassing, across a wide range of frequencies – the figure below illustrates the common terminology used, from low-band, mid-band (“sub 6G”), and high-band (“mmWave”)… Read More
Workflow Automation Applied to IP Lifecycle Management
I often blog about a specific EDA tool, or an IP block, but the way that SoC design teams approach their designs and then use tools and IP can either be a manual, ad-hoc process, or part of something that is well-documented, following a design methodology. Back in the 1980’s while at Intel our team first created a design methodology… Read More
Synopsys and Infineon prepare for expanding AI use in automotive applications
We all know that cars are using processors for many tasks, but it is easy to fail to comprehend just how many there are in a typical modern car. Browsing through the Infineon AURIX automotive processor application guide, you can start to see just how pervasive processors are. The AURIX processors are specifically designed for automotive… Read More
AI Hardware Summit, Report #3: Enabling On-Device Intelligence
This is the third and final blog I have written about the recent AI Hardware Summit held at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, CA. Day 1 of the conference was more about solutions in the data center, whereas Day 2 was primarily around solutions at the Edge. This presentation from Day 2 was given by Dr. Thomas Anderson, Head,… Read More
Debugging SoCs at the RTL, Gate and SPICE Netlist Levels
Debugging an IC is never much fun because of all the file formats used, the levels of hierarchy and just the sheer design size, so when an EDA tool comes around that allows me to get my debugging done quicker, then I take notice and give it a look. I was already familiar with debugging SPICE netlists using a tool called SPICEVision Pro,… Read More
Webinar: OCV and Timing Closure Sign-off by Silvaco on Oct 10 at 10AM
The old adage that goes the one constant thing you can always count on is change, could easily be reworded for semiconductor design to say the one constant thing you can count on is variation. This is doubly true. Not only is variation, in all its forms, a constant factor in design, additionally the methods of analyzing and dealing … Read More
Webinar: Finding Your Way Through Formal Verification
Formal verification has always appeared daunting to me and I suspect to many other people also. Logic simulation feels like a “roll your sleeves up and get the job done” kind of verification, easily understood, accessible to everyone, little specialized training required. Formal methods for many years remained the domain of … Read More
AI Hardware Summit, Report #2: Lowering Power at the Edge with HLS
I previously wrote a blog about a session from Day 1 of the AI Hardware Summit at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, CA, held just last week. From Day 2, I want to delve into this presentation by Bryan Bowyer, Director of Engineering, Digital Design & Implementation Solutions Division at Mentor, a Siemens Business.… Read More
Rapidus, IBM, and the Billion-Dollar Silicon Sovereignty Bet