As we all know, hearing directly from the people who actually use EDA tools, people who are solving real world problems with the latest technologies are the best source of information. Thus EDA User group meetings are always first on my event list every year which brings us to Ansys Ideas.
Electronic Design Automation
Ensuring 3D IC Semiconductor Reliability: Challenges and Solutions for Successful Integration
One of the most promising advancements in the semiconductor field is the development of 3D Integrated Circuits (3D ICs). 3D ICs enable companies to partition semiconductor designs and seamlessly integrate silicon Intellectual Property (IP) at the most suitable process nodes and processes. This strategic partitioning yields… Read More
Generative AI for Silicon Design – Article 1 (Code My FSM)
In today’s fast-paced world, innovation in semiconductor design is a constant demand. The need for quicker, more accurate, and innovative solutions has paved the way for exploring the potential of Generative AI (#GenerativeAI) in the realm of semiconductor design development. Can it be done? Hell yeah! In this article… Read More
SRAM design analysis and optimization
Every year EDA vendor MunEDA hosts a user group meeting where engineers present how they used automation tools to improve their IC designs, and one presentation from Peter Huber of Infineon caught my attention, it was all about SRAM design optimization. Peter has authored papers at IEEE conferences and been issued patents related… Read More
Managing IP, Chiplets, and Design Data
Design re-use has enabled IC design teams to create billion-transistor designs where hundreds of IP blocks are pre-built from internal or external sources. Keeping track of where each of these IP blocks came from, what their version status is, managing IP, or even discerning their license status can be a full-time job if tracked… Read More
100G/200G Electro-Optical Interfaces: The Future for Low Power, Low Latency Data Centers
Electrical copper interconnects, once the backbone of data center networks, are facing growing challenges. Rapid expansion of AI and ML applications is driving a significant increase in cluster sizes within data centers, resulting in substantial demands for faster I/O capabilities. While the surge in I/O requirements is … Read More
The Path to Chiplet Architecture
If you have anything to do with the semiconductor industry, you already know that one of the hottest areas for both manufacturing and EDA are systems designed with advanced packaging, basically putting more than one die (aka chiplets) in the same package.
When 3D packaging was first introduced, there were not really any effective… Read More
An Update on IP-XACT standard 2022
Semiconductor IP design re-use has enabled the relentless growth in complexity of SoC and chiplet-based systems over the years, and with IP reuse comes many unique challenges. Fabless design companies use IP provided by a vibrant ecosystem of IP suppliers and foundries, plus internal re-use in the quest to get to market more … Read More
Qualcomm Insights into Unreachability Analysis
Unreachability (UNR) analysis, finding and definitively proving that certain states in a design cannot possibly be covered in testing, should be a wildly popular component in all verification plans. When the coverage needle stubbornly refuses to move, where should you focus testing creativity while avoiding provably untestable… Read More
TSMC N3E is ready for designs, thanks to IP from Synopsys
TSMC has been offering foundry services since 1987, and their first 3nm node was called N3 and debuted in 2022; now they have an enhanced 3nm node dubbed N3E that has launched. Every new node then requires IP that is carefully designed, characterized and validated in silicon to ensure that the IP specifications are being met and … Read More
Rethinking Multipatterning for 2nm Node