The burgeoning need of high density of electronic content on a single chip, thereby necessitating critical PPA (Power, Performance, Area) optimization, has pushed the technology node below 0.1 micron where static power becomes equally relevant as dynamic power. Moreover, multiple power rails run through the circuit at different… Read More
TSMC on Collaboration: JIT Ecosystem Development
Cliff Hou of TSMC gave the keynote today at SNUG on Collaborate to Innovate: a Foundry’s Perspective. Starting around 45nm the way that a foundry has to work with its ecosystem fundamentally changed. Up until then, each process generation was similar enough to the previous one, apart obviously from size, that it could be … Read More
Will 14nm Yield?
If I had a nickel for every time I heard the term “FinFET” at the 2013 SNUG (Synopsys User Group) Conference I could buy a dozen Venti Carmel Frappuccinos at Starbucks (my daughter’s favorite treat). In the keynote, Aart de Geus said FinFET 14 times and posed the question: Will FinFETs Yield at 14nm? So that was my mission, ask everybody… Read More
In compliance we trust, for integration we verify
So, you dropped that piece of complex IP you just licensed into an SoC design, and now it is time to fire up the simulator. How do you verify that it actually works in your design? If you didn’t get verification IP (VIP) with the functional IP, it might be a really long day.
Compliance checking something like a PCIe interface block is a … Read More
Moore Push Versus Market Pull
I was at SNUG earlier today at both Aart’s keynote that opened the conference and at his “meet the press” Q&A just before lunch. The keynote was entitled Bridges to the Gigascale Decade. And the presentation certainly contained lots of photos of bridges! Anyway, I’m going to focus on just one thing,… Read More
A New Mixed-Signal IC Router
Pure digital routers for IC designs have an easier task than mixed-signal routers, because mixed-signal routers have more constraints like:
- Shielded buses
- Differential pairs
- Twisted pairs
- Matched RC routing
- 20nm technology rules
- Double Patterning Technology (DPT)
EDAC CEOs: consolidation, clouds, and whether Intel will buy Synopsys
Yesterday evening was the annual EDAC CEO forecast meeting. Actually it is not really a forecast meeting any more, more a sort of CEO response to some survey questions asked of EDAC members. Rich Valera of Needham moderated with Lip-Bu, Aart and Wally, along with Simon Segars representing the IP arm(!) of the business and Raul Camposano… Read More
Synopsys ♥ TSMC!
Dr. Paul McLellan and I will be covering the Silicon Valley SNUG live again this year. Unfortunately we are only allowed to see the keynotes (same thing with CDNLive) but they look very good:
Keynote Address: Massive Innovation and Collaboration into the “GigaScale” Age!
Aart de Geus, Chairman and co-CEO, Synopsys,… Read More
Ensuring timing of Custom Designs with large embedded memories – A big burden has solution!
In 1990s when designs were small, I was seeing design and EDA community struggling to improve upon huge time taken to verify the circuits, specifically with Spice and the like. I was myself working on developing tool for transistor level static timing analysis (STA) mainly to gain on time (eliminating the need of exhaustive set … Read More
Synopsys ♥ FinFETs
FinFETs are fun! They certainly have kept me busy writing over the past year about the possibilities and probabilities of a disruptive technology that will dramatically change the semiconductor ecosystem. Now that 14nm silicon is making the rounds I will be able to start writing about the realities of FinFETs which is very exciting!… Read More