Synopsys recently hosted a cross-industry panel on the state of multi-die systems which I found interesting not least for its relevance to the rapid acceleration in AI-centric hardware. More on that below. Panelists, all with significant roles in multi-die systems, were Shekhar Kapoor (Senior Director of Product Management,… Read More
Electronic Design Automation
Placement and Clocks for HPC
You are probably familiar with the acronym PPA, which stands for Power/Performance/Area. Sometimes it is PPAC, where C is for cost, since there is more to cost than just area. For example, did you know that adding an additional metal layer to a chip dramatically increases the cost, sometimes by millions of dollars? It requires a … Read More
Synopsys – TSMC Collaboration Unleashes Innovation for TSMC OIP Ecosystem
As the focal point of the TSMC OIP ecosystem, TSMC has been driving important initiatives over the last few years to bring multi-die systems to the mainstream. As the world is moving quickly toward Generative AI technology and AI-based systems, multi-die and chiplet-based implementations are becoming essential. TSMC recently… Read More
The Quest for Bugs: “Verification is a Data Problem!”
Verification Data Analytics
Hardware Verification is a highly data-intensive or data-heavy problem. Verification Engineers recognise this and spend much of their time dealing with large and complex datasets arising from verification processes.
In “The Dilemmas of Hardware Verification” we explored the key challenges … Read More
Transformers Transforming the Field of Computer Vision
Over the last few years, transformers have been fundamentally changing the nature of deep learning models, revolutionizing the field of artificial intelligence. Transformers introduce an attention mechanism that allows models to weigh the importance of different elements in an input sequence. Unlike traditional deep learning… Read More
Lowering the DFT Cost for Large SoCs with a Novel Test Point Exploration & Implementation Methodology
With the increasing on-chip integration capabilities, large scale electronic systems can be integrated into a single System-on-Chip or SoC. New manufacturing test challenges are raised for more advanced technology nodes where both quality and cost during testing are affected. A typical parameter is test coverage which impacts… Read More
AI for the design of Custom, Analog Mixed-Signal ICs
Custom and Analog-Mixed Signal (AMS) IC design are used when the highest performance is required, and using digital standard cells just won’t meet the requirements. Manually sizing schematics, doing IC layout, extracting parasitics, then measuring the performance only to go back and continue iterating is a long, tedious… Read More
Keysight EDA 2024 Delivers Shift Left for Chiplet and PDK Workflows
Much of the recent Keysight EDA 2024 announcement focuses on high-speed digital (HSD) and RF EDA features for Advanced Design System (ADS) and SystemVue users, including RF System Explorer, DPD Explorer (for digital pre-distortion), and design elements for 5G NTN, DVB-S2X, and satcom phased array applications. Two important… Read More
Assertion Synthesis Through LLM. Innovation in Verification
Assertion based verification is a very productive way to catch bugs, however assertions are hard enough to write that assertion-based coverage is not as extensive as it could be. Is there a way to simplify developing assertions to aid in increasing that coverage? Paul Cunningham (Senior VP/GM, Verification at Cadence), Raúl … Read More
Version Control, Data and Tool Integration, Collaboration
As a follow up from my #60DAC visit with Simon Rance of Keysight I was invited to their recent webinar, Unveiling the Secrets to Proper Version Control, Seamless Data and Tool Integration, and Effective Collaboration. Karim Khalfan, Director of Solutions Engineering, Data & IP Management was the webinar presenter.
Modern… Read More
Rethinking Multipatterning for 2nm Node