Roaming the aisles at #50DAC the past week left me with one unmistakable impression: there were two shows going on at the same time. Oh, we were all packed into one space together at the Austin Convention Center and neighboring hotels. But we weren’t quite all speaking the same language – yet.… Read More
Electronic Design Automation
Hardware Assisted Verification
On the Tuesday of DAC I moderated a panel session on Hardware Assisted Verification in 10 Years: More Need, More Speed. Although this topic obviously could include FPGA-based prototyping, in fact we spent pretty much the whole time talking about emulation. Gary Smith, on Sunday night, actually set up things by pointing out that… Read More
Custom Physical IC Design update from Cadence
Custom IC design and layout is becoming more difficult at 20nm and smaller nodes, so the EDA tools have to get smarter and work harder for us in order to maintain productivity with the fewest iterations to reach our specs. Dave Stylesand John Stabenow of Cadence met with me last Monday in Austin at the DAC exhibit area.
John Stabenow… Read More
AMS IC Simulation Update from Synopsys at DAC
Last year at DAC we didn’t really know the circuit simulation roadmap for Synopsys because of all the EDA company acquisitions, however this year it’s clear to me that:
- HSPICE continues on, although it’s a lower performance circuit simulator than FineSim
- FineSim from Magma is well-loved, and faster than HSPICE
Using Releases for Analog IC Design
In a typical analog IC design team, multiple engineers and layout professionals work on cells and libraries. At various points during the design process they will commit changes to their designs into the Design Management (DM) system that manages their files – be it Subversion, Perforce or some other commercial tool.
Using the… Read More
SoC Sign-off, Real Intent at DAC
Monday morning at DAC I met with Real Intent to get an update on their SoC sign-off tools:
- Dr. Prakash Narain, President and CEO
- Graham Bell, Sr. Dir. Mktg.
Years ago Prakash was at IBM the only two years that they attended DAC, in an attempt to offer their internal EDA tools to the EDA marketplace. Graham worked at Nassda marketing the… Read More
IC Design for Implantable Devices Treating Epilepsy
I’m utterly amazed at how IC-based products are improving our quality of life by implantable devices. The modern day pacemaker has given people added years of life by electrically stimulating the heart. A privately-held company called NeuroPace was founded in Mountain View, California to treat epilepsy by using responsive… Read More
First FinFETs Manufactured at #50DAC!
This was my 30[SUP]th[/SUP] DAC and the second most memorable. The most memorable was my second DAC (1985) in Las Vegas with my new bride. We had a romantic evening ending with ice cream sundaes at midnight that we still talk about. This year SemiWiki had Dr. Paul McLellan, Dr. Eric Esteve, Daniel Payne, Don Dingee, Randy Smith, and… Read More
Metastability and Fatal System Errors
Metastability is an inescapable phenomenon in digital electronic systems. This phenomenon has been known to cause fatal system errors for half a century. Over the years, designers have used convenient rules of thumb for designing synchronizers to mitigate it. However, as digital circuits have become more complex, smaller … Read More
DAC IP Workshop: Are You Ready For Quality Control?
On Sunday I attended an IP workshop which was presented by TSMC, Atrenta, Sonics and IPextreme. It turns out that the leitmotiv of the afternoon was SpyGlass.
Dan Kochpatcharin of TSMC was first up and gave a little bit of history of the company. They built up their capacity over the years, as I’ve written about before, and last… Read More
Real men have fabs!