David Abercrombie from Mentor Graphics met with me on Tuesday at DAC to provide an update on DPT – Double Patterning Technology, something new required for several layers starting at the 20nm node in order to get any IC yield. DPT is also part of Multiple-Patterning.… Read More
Electronic Design Automation
IPL Alliance at DAC
Lunch on Tuesday at DAC was sponsored by the IPL Alliance and thankfully this year they skipped the attempt at humor and focused on interoperable PDKs. Presenting companies include: Synopsys, Dongbu HiTek, TowerJazz, X-FAB and Si2. Having both OpenPDK and iPDK on the same platform does sound like a peaceful co-existence to me,… Read More
Atrenta Aquires NextOp
Atrenta announced today that it is acquiring NextOp Software. NextOp sells a tool BugScope that provides assertion synthesis technology. This complements Atrenta’s SpyGlass products for improving the process for design of complex semiconductor IP and SoCs.
I went to Atrenta’s office to talk to Ajoy Bose (CEO)… Read More
Shape-based IC Routing at DAC
IC place and route is a big challenge so we see many EDA companies creating tools. On Tuesday at DAC I met with Dave Noble of Pulsic to get an update.
Notes
Dave Noble, VP Operations (EDA since 2003), Sperry Univac since 1974
– had been an EDA distributor for Pulsic as well
More leads qualified on Monday than all days of last year … Read More
3D Thermal and Mechanical Stress for IC Packaging
3D has been a growing buzz word in IC design and packaging for several years now, so it’s refreshing to actually find an EDA vendor that has developed tools to help analyze something like 3D thermal and mechanical stress at DAC. … Read More
Executive Opinion: The Future of EDA is Bright
The days following a major conference like DAC are a good time to reflect on the overall health and vibrancy of the electronic design automation (EDA) industry. I’ve been in EDA for 21 years and built two successful startups, and over the last couple of years, have witnessed some decline in both new talent and in venture investment… Read More
What’s new with HSPICE at DAC?
One year ago I met with Hany Elhak of Synopsys to get an update on what was new with HSPICE in 2011, so this year at DAC Hany met me at the Synopsys booth for a quick update.
HSPICE has something called Precision Parallel so with 16 cores your IC circuit simulations will have about 10 x speed up compared to a single core.… Read More
TSMC Threater Presentation: Solido Design Automation!
For a small company, Solido has some very large customers and partners, TSMC being on of them. Why? Because of the high yield and memory performance demand on leading edge technologies, that’s why.
Much has been made of and will continue to be said on the march of Moore’s Law. While economics of scale and performance vs. power… Read More
Samsung, Synopsys, GLOBALFOUNDRIES and ARM at DAC
Tuesday morning at DAC I attended the Synopsys-hosted breakfast to hear from foundries and ARM about the challenges of designing and delivering silicon at the 32nm/28nm and 20nm nodes.
… Read MoreCadence IP Strategy 2012
As I mentioned in a previous blog Cadence Update 2012, Martin Lund is now in charge of the Cadence IP strategy. Martin read my first blog and wanted to exchange IP strategies so we met at DAC 2012 for a chat. Not only did Martin connect with me on LinkedIn, he also joined the SemiWiki LinkedIn group, which now has 4,000+ members. So yes,… Read More
TSMC Unveils the World’s Most Advanced Logic Technology at IEDM