Each year at the International Test Conference(ITC) we hear about the latest advances from the testability side of both EDA vendors and academics. This year Aart de Geus, Chairman and Co-CEO of Synopsys delivered a keynote speech titled, “Testing Positive, for Complexity“. Yesterday I spoke with Robert Ruiz and… Read More
Designing SmartCar ICs
When I upgraded cars from a 1988 to 1998 Acura it seemed like my car had become much smarter with a security chip in the key, security codes in the radio and a connector for computer diagnosis, however in today’s modern auto there’s a lot more mixed-signal design content. Micronasand Synopsysgot together and hosted … Read More
Synopsys Verification Continuum
Verification spans a number of different technologies, from virtual platforms, RTL simulation, formal techniques, emulation and FPGA prototyping. Going back a few years, most of these technologies came from separate companies and one effect of this was that moving the design from one verification environment to another required… Read More
Explaining HAPS-DX in an elevator
Every development team has been through this challenge: finding a tool that looks fantastic, then heading off to the manager one or two levels up who has enough signature authority for the purchase order. Signatures for amounts reading more than a couple of trailing zeros on POs are rarely free, or painless. … Read More
AMD Design IP Deal with Virage Logic… Oops… Synopsys
Whoever has said that history never repeats itself should read this recent PR from AMD! The news can be summarized in three points:
- Multi-year agreement gives AMD access to a range of Synopsys design IP including interface, memory compiler, logic library and analog IP for advanced FinFET process nodes
- Synopsys acquires rights
Design & EDA Collaboration Advances Mixed-Signal Verification through VCS AMS
Last week it was a rare opportunity for me to attend a webinar where an SoC design house, a leading IP provider and a leading EDA tool provider joined together to present on how the tool capabilities are being used for advanced mixed-signal simulation of large designs, faster with accuracy. It’s always been a struggle to combine design… Read More
Synopsys VC VIP for Memory
Synopsys have been gradually broadening their portfolio of verification IP (VIP). It is 100% native SystemVerilog with native debug using Verdi (that was acquired from SpringSoft last year, now fully integrated into Verification Compiler). It has native performance with VCS. Going forward there are source code test suites.… Read More
FinFETs for your Next SoC
Planar CMOS processes have been offered for decades now, and all the way down through the 28nm node it has been riding the benefits of Moore’s Law. A few years back we started hearing from Intel about TriGate (aka FinFET) starting at the 22nm node as a way to use a more 3D processing approach for transistors instead of planar CMOS.… Read More
Synopsys Earnings
The perfect quarterly results are to slightly beat the consensus for earnings and profit, and not say anything negative about guidance for the upcoming quarter. Synopsys delivered all that with their latest quarter yesterday. Revenue was $521M versus $483M last year, giving solid growth of over 8%. Non-GAAP earnings per share… Read More
Transaction-based Emulation
Verification has been going through a lot of changes in the last couple of years. Three technologies that used to be largely contained in their own silos have come together: simulation, emulation and virtual-platforms.
Until recently, the workhorse verification tool was simulation. Emulation had its place but limits on capacity… Read More