PCB designers have been using manual routing for decades now, so when is it time to consider adding interactive routing technologies to become more productive? Manually routing traces to connect components will take time from a skilled team member and involves human judgement that will introduce errors. When a design change … Read More
Electronic Design Automation
Follow the Leader – Synopsys Provides Broad Support for Processor Ecosystems
Synopsys has expanded its ARC processor portfolio to include a family of RISC-V processors. This was originally reported on SemiWiki last October. There is also a recent in-depth article on the make-up of the ARC-V family on SemiWiki here. This is important and impactful news; I encourage you to read these articles if you haven’t… Read More
How does your EDA supplier ensure software quality?
In the fast-paced world of electronic design automation (EDA) software development, maintaining high code quality while adhering to tight deadlines is a significant challenge. Code coverage, an essential metric in software testing, measures the extent to which a software’s source code is executed in tests. High code… Read More
Using LLMs for Fault Localization. Innovation in Verification
We have talked about fault localization (root cause analysis) in several reviews. This early-release paper looks at applying LLM technology to the task. Paul Cunningham (GM, Verification at Cadence), Raúl Camposano (Silicon Catalyst, entrepreneur, former Synopsys CTO and now Silvaco CTO) and I continue our series on research… Read More
Sarcina Teams with Keysight to Deliver Advanced Packages
All aspects of semiconductor design and manufacturing require collaboration across a global ecosystem. As complexity increases, so does the importance of good collaboration. This is especially true for advanced package design. Thanks to the movement to multi-die design, package development has become an incredibly difficult… Read More
Fully Automating Chip Design
Design Productivity Gap
Twenty-five years ago, SEMATECH first alerted the world to a concern known as the design productivity gap: the observation that the ability to manufacture complex chips had started outpacing the capability of designers to create them by more than a factor of two. This concern was subsequently reiterated… Read More
The Git Dilemma: Is Version Control Enough for Semiconductor Success?
Git is a version control system that saves every change made to files. It offers powerful tools for managing these changes. This makes Git ideal for software development, as it lets you keep all project files in one place.
Software has grown in complexity, necessitating more collaboration among engineers across various time zones.… Read More
From System Design to Drug Design. The Rationale
I’m guessing that more than a few people were mystified (maybe still are) when Cadence acquired OpenEye Scientific, a company known for computational molecular design aimed at medical drug/therapeutics discovery. What could EDA, even SDA (system design automation), and drug discovery possibly have in common? More than you… Read More
New Tool that Synthesizes Python to RTL for AI Neural Network Code
AI and ML techniques are popular topics, yet there are considerable challenges to those that want to design and build an AI accelerator for inferencing, as you need a team that understands how to model a neural network in a language like Python, turn that model into RTL, then verify that your RTL matches Python. Researchers from CERN,… Read More
S2C and Sirius Wireless Collaborate on Wi-Fi 7 RF IP Verification System
Sirius Wireless partnered with FPGA prototyping expert S2C to develop the Wi-Fi 7 RF IP Verification System, enhancing working efficiency and accelerating time-to-market for clients.
Wi-Fi 7 is the latest Wi-Fi technology, with speeds of up to 30Gbps, approximately three times the peak performance of Wi-Fi 6. This enhanced… Read More
CHIPS Act dies because employees are fired – NIST CHIPS people are probationary