EDA has been flirting with the cloud unsuccessfully for many years now and it really comes down to a familiar question: Who can afford to spend billions of dollars on data center security? Which is similar to the question that started the fabless transformation: Who can afford to spend billions of dollars on semiconductor manufacturing… Read More
Electronic Design Automation
Synopsys Seeds Significant SIM Segue
It turns out that consumers are not alone in their love-hate relationship with SIM cards. SIM cards save us from increasingly widespread cellphone cloning. However, if your experience is anything like mine, it seemed that with every new phone, a new SIM card format was needed. Furthermore, people travelling overseas who wanted… Read More
Make Versus Buy for Semiconductor IP used in PVT Monitoring
As an IC designer I absolutely loved embarking on a new design project, starting with a fresh, blank slate, not having to use any legacy blocks. In the early 1980’s we really hadn’t given much thought to re-using semiconductor IP because each new project typically came with a new process node, so there was no IP even ready… Read More
SURGE 2018 Silvaco Update!
The semiconductor industry has been very good to me over the past 35 years. I have had a front row seat to some of the most innovative and disruptive things like the fabless transformation and of course the Electronic Design Automation phenomenon, not to mention the end products that we as an industry have enabled. It is truly amazing… Read More
Crossfire Baseline Checks for Clean IP at TSMC OIP
IP must be properly qualified before attempting to use them in any IC design flow. One cannot wait to catch issues further down the chip design cycle. Waiting for issues to appear during design verification poses extremely high risks, including schedule slippage. For example, connection errors in transistor bulk terminals where… Read More
LightSuite – Physical Design Goes Photonics!
Light is a form of energy. It reveals an object’s color and shape through the refraction (passing through light) or the reflection (bouncing back light) of its beam. While photon is the smallest measure of light, the term photonicscan be defined as the science and technology of generating, controlling, and detecting photons. … Read More
Cloud FPGA Optimal Design Closure, Synthesis, and Timing Using Plunify’s AI Strategies
Plunify, powered by machine learning and the cloud, delivers cloud-based solutions and optimization software to enable a better quality of results, higher productivity and better efficiency for design. Plunify is a software company in the Electronic Design Market with a focus on FPGA. It was founded in 2009, has its HQ in Singapore… Read More
Retro-uC: on a road to low-cost, (ridiculously) low-volume ASICs ?
I’m a long time reader of SemiWiki; almost from the start. I’ve sometimes been a passionate commenter but as some of you may have noticed my activity lately on the forum was lower. One of the reasons is a project I am working on and I feel honoured I was invited to present the background here on SemiWiki.
I am currently working… Read More
Data Management for SoCs – Not Optional Anymore
Design Management (DM) encompasses business decisions, strategies and processes that enable product innovations. It is the foundation for both effective collaboration and gaining competitive advantage in the industry. This also applies in the high-tech space we are in, as having a sound underlying SoC data management for… Read More
Highly Modular, AI Specialized, DNA 100 IP Core Target IoT to ADAS
The Cadence Tensilica DNA100 DSP IP core is not a one-size-fits-all device. But it’s highly modular in order to support AI processing at the edge, delivering from 0.5 TMAC for on-device IoT up to 10s or 100 TMACs to support autonomous vehicle (ADAS). If you remember the first talks about IoT and Cloud, a couple of years ago, the IoT … Read More
Musk’s new job as Samsung Fab Manager – Can he disrupt chip making? Intel outside