Software configuration management (SCM) has been around for a long time with commercial SCM offerings such as ClearCase and Perforce and public domain mainstays such as CVS and Subversion. Similarly, over the last two decades we’ve seen a big uptake in the adoption of hardware configuration management (HCM) methodologies driven… Read More
Electronic Design Automation
Developing Affordable IoT Systems
The IoT market opportunities in segments like wearables, vehicles, home, cities and industrial are all growing thanks to the combination of semiconductors, sensors, software and systems technology. New hardware designs for IoT edge devices appear on a daily basis, and the companies behind these new products can often be start-ups… Read More
Mentor Tessent MissionMode Provides Runtime DFT for Self-Correcting Automotive ICs
The automotive industry continues push the limits on how “smart” we can make our vehicles and from that, it follows as to how smart we can make the electronics in the vehicles. When I think of smart cars (and smart automotive ICs) I typically think of things like advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS) that use AI and neural networks… Read More
A Development Lifecycle Approach to Security Verification
We have become accustomed to the idea that safety expectations can’t be narrowed down to one thing you do in design. They pervade all aspects of design from overall process through analysis, redundancies in design, fault analytics and mitigation for faults and on-board monitors for reliability among other requirements and techniques.… Read More
SoC Design Management with Git
Linux creator Linus Torvalds lives in Oregon not too far from me and he also created the popular Git system for Design Management (DM) in 2004 that is now used by many software developers. So what makes Git so attractive as a DM tool?
- Feature-branch workflow
- Easy to switch context between features
- New features can be created orderly
SPIE 2018 Mentor Graphics Scott Jones and SemiWiki
Next week is SPIE, the leading lithography networking event here in Silicon Valley. Scott Jones is not only attending but also presenting at the 15th Annual LithoVision on Sunday. I will be at SPIE as well so if you want to meet up let us know. We will publish a blog on Scott’s presentation the morning of for those who cannot attend.… Read More
Free Webinar on Standard Cell Statistical Characterization
Variation analysis continues to be increasingly important as process technology moves to more advanced nodes. It comes as no surprise that tool development in this area has been vigorous and aggressive. New higher reliability IC applications, larger memory sizes and much higher production volumes require sophisticated yield… Read More
Securing embedded SIMs
If you have a phone, you probably know it has a SIM card, for most of us the anchor that ties us into a 2/3-year plan with one network provider, unless you have an unlocked phone. Even then, you have to mess around swapping SIM cards if you travel overseas. Wouldn’t it be nice if the SIM was embedded and could be switched though an app or an… Read More
IPC-2581: The Standard for PCB Data Exchange
The motivations to establish an industry standard data format are varied:
[LIST=1]
- solidify a “de facto” standard, transitioning its evolution and support from a single company to an industry consortium;
- aggregate disparate sources of design and manufacturing data into a single representation, with documented semantics;
DVCon 2018 Mentor Graphics and SemiWiki
DVCon turns 30 this year which is a very big deal. My oldest child also turns 30 this year which really puts things in perspective looking back at what we have all accomplished during that time. DVCon originally started as a user’s group at the 1988 Design Automation Conference in Anaheim California and the rest as they say is history.… Read More


The Name Changes but the Vision Remains the Same – ESD Alliance Through the Years