In the world of semiconductor design, constraints are essentially specifications and requirements that guide the implementation of a specific hardware or software component within a larger system. They dictate timing, area, power, performance, and of course functionality of a design, playing a crucial role in ensuring that… Read More
UCIe InterOp Testchip Unleashes Growth of Open Chiplet Ecosystem
Intel recently made headlines when CEO Pat Gelsinger unveiled the world’s first UCIe interoperability test chip demo at Innovation 2023. The test chip built using advanced packaging technology is codenamed Pike Creek and is used to demonstrate interoperability across chiplets designed by Intel and Synopsys. More details … Read More
Synopsys.ai Ups the AI Ante with Copilot
Last week Synopsys announced their next step in generative AI (GenAI) in Synopsys.ai Copilot based on a collaboration with Microsoft. This integrates Azure OpenAI together with existing Synopsys.ai GenAI capabilities to extend Copilot concepts to the EDA world. For those of you unfamiliar with Copilot, this is a development… Read More
Synopsys 224G SerDes IP’s Extensive Ecosystem Interoperability
Hyperscale data centers are evolving rapidly to meet the demands of high-bandwidth, low-latency applications, ranging from AI and high-performance computing (HPC) to telecommunications and 4K video streaming. The increasing need for faster data transfer rates has prompted a scaling of Ethernet from 51Tb/s to 100Tb/s. Numerous… Read More
Synopsys Debuts RISC-V IP Product Families
Synopsys has just announced that it has expanded its ARC processor portfolio to include a family of RISC-V processors. These will be branded under the ARC name as ARC-V and are expected to become available in 2024. This is a significant announcement which I attempt to unpack briefly below.
Why add RISC-V to the portfolio and why now?
… Read MoreA Fast Path to Better ARC PPA through Fusion Quickstart Implementation Kits and DSO.AI
Synopsys recently presented a webinar on using their own software to optimize one of their own IPs (an ARC HS68 processor) for both performance and power through what looks like a straightforward flow from initial configuration through first level optimization to more comprehensive AI-driven PPA optimization. Also of note … 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
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
Synopsys Panel Updates on the State of Multi-Die Systems
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
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