Understanding the electromagnetic (EM) coupling between various elements of a high-frequency semiconductor device is vital for meeting design specifications and ensuring reliable operation in the field. These EM interactions include not only the silicon chip but also extend to the package that encloses it. However, it may… Read More
Electronic Design Automation
The Transformation Model for IP-Centric Design
Semiconductor designs have been progressing over time to address wider product varieties and designs with increasing complexity. Organizations have been addressing intense time-to-market pressures by leveraging globally dispersed team resources. The project-centric design methodology, which once worked well with … Read More
Achieving a Unified Electrical/Mechanical PCB Design Flow – The Siemens Digital Industries Software View
Let’s face it, designs are getting harder, much harder. Gone are the days when the electrical and mechanical design of a system occurred separately. Maybe ten years ago this practice was acceptable. Once the electrical design was completed (either the chip or the board) the parameters associated with the design were then given… Read More
Information Flow Tracking at RTL. Innovation in Verification
Explicit and implicit sneak paths to leak or compromise information continue to represent a threat to security. This paper looks a refinement of existing gate level information flow tracking (IFT) techniques extended to RTL, encouraging early-stage security optimization. Paul Cunningham (Senior VP/GM, Verification at … Read More
Making UVM faster through a new configuration system
The Universal Verification Methodology (UVM) is a popular way to help verify SystemVerilog designs, and it includes a configuration system that unfortunately has some speed and usage issues. Rich Edelman from Siemens EDA wrote a detailed 20-page paper on the topic of how to avoid these issues, and I’ve gone through it to… Read More
SPIE 2023 Buzz – Siemens Aims to Break Down Innovation Barriers by Extending Design Technology Co-Optimization
Preventing the propagation of systematic defects in today’s semiconductor design-to-fabrication process requires many validation, analysis and optimization steps. Tools involved in this process can include design rule checking (DRC), optical proximity correction (OPC) verification, mask writing and wafer printing… Read More
Preventing SOC Schedule Delays Using the Cloud
In my previous article, we touched on ways to pull in the schedule. This time I’d like to analyze how peak usage affects project timeline and cost. The above graph is based on real pattern taken from one development week in Annapurna Labs 5nm Graviton.
The Graph shows the number of variable servers per hour per day. There’s a baseline… Read More
Giving Back – The Story of One Silicon Valley Veteran’s Journey
The concept of giving back is something many of us have contemplated. Giving back to the community or to support a particular cause. How to respond to those inquiries from our alma mater is another example. These conversations typically focus on giving money to provide needed support. As engineers, we are surrounded by a massive… Read More
RISC-V and Chiplets: A Panel Discussion
At the recent RISC-V Summit, the very last session was a panel about chiplets called Chiplets in the RISC-V Ecosystem. It was moderated by Calista Redmond, the CEO of RISC-V International. The panelists were:
- Laurent Moll, COO of Arteris
- Aniket Saha, VP of Product Management of Tenstorrent
- Dale Greenley, VP of Engineering of Ventana
Using PCB Automation for an AI and Machine Vision Product
I knew that HDMI was a popular standard used to connect consumer products like a monitor to a laptop, but most professional video and broadcast systems use the SDI (Serial Digital Interface) connector standard. Pleora Technologies, founded in 2000, currently serves the machine vision and manufacturing markets, including those… Read More
CHIPS Act dies because employees are fired – NIST CHIPS people are probationary