The maiden voyage of NASA’s Orion spacecraft brought a raft of articles about how the flight computer inside is “no smarter than your phone,” running on wheezing IBM PowerPC 750FX processors. NASA’s deputy manager for Orion avionics, Matt Lemke, admits the configuration is already obsolete – at least in commercial terms. … Read More
Synopsys Q4 Earnings
Synopsys announced their earnings a couple of days ago. This is actually also the end of their fiscal year. They had quarterly earnings of $539M meaning that they did just over $2B for the year. Their guidance for fiscal 2015 is revenue between $2.185B to $2.225B. They said that about 80% of that revenue is already in backlog.
But it… Read More
Design Rule Checking (DRC) Meets New Challenges
The traditional batch-oriented DRC process run as a final check to ensure compliance with foundry yield goals is quickly moving toward a concurrent DRC process performed early and often throughout design, especially at the 28 nm and smaller process nodes. What are the technology factors causing this change?
- Increasing number
Using HAPS-DX for system-level deep trace debug
Debugging an ASIC design in an FPGA-based prototyping system can be a lot like disciplining a puppy. If you happen to be there at the exact moment the transgression occurs and understand what led up to that moment, administering an effective correction might be possible.
Catching RTL in the act requires the right tools. Faults in… Read More
Is Your Washing Machine a Connected Thing?
In fact the question could be about your watch, thermostat or other smart appliance, as soon as the “thing” relies on one or more sensors to function. In this case, we are close to call this thing an IoT (or SmarCoT), we just need to add WiFi, BTLE, ZigBee connectivity. Sensors are ubiquitous, integrated into smartphone, automotive,… Read More
Semiconductor IP Make the World Go Round!
Semiconductor IP really does make the life of a semiconductor professional much easier which is why Google brings us so much IP traffic. If you look at the SemiWiki analytics, IP has always been a top draw. In comparison to standard EDA traffic, IP gets about 25% more views per blog on average. Synopsys is not only the leading EDA company… Read More
Are you SmarCoT or IoT?
No need to explain the IoT acronym (Internet of Things) except that IoT doesn’t really describe a reality: do you really know about any “Thing” being directly connected to the Internet? In fact, there is probably some intermediate system linking this thing with the Cloud, like a smartphone, an Internet box, a PC, etc. Just take a … Read More
How many 28nm FDSOI SoC Design Starts in 2015? In 2020?
I would like to further discuss this graphic (presented during IP-SoC 2014 by John Koeter, VP of Marketing IP and prototyping, Synopsys) and focus on Active Design and Tapeouts at 28nm. In fact the very first activity appeared in Q1 2007, but it was only during 2010 that 28nm become popular, after the first Tapeouts coming in Q1 and… Read More
IP-SoC 2014 Top Class Presentations…
… were given to an ever shrinking audience. This is IP-SoC paradox: audience has enjoyed very good presentations made by Cadence, Synopsys or ST-Microelectronic, to name just a few. As far as I am concerned, I was happy to present the “Interface IP Winners and Losers (Protocols)” in the amphitheater during the first day, enjoying… Read More
What Presentations to Attend During IP-SoC 2014 ?
Will you go to Grenoble next week to attend to IP-SoC? I will do it and will certainly listen to these Keynote Talks:
- “Platform IP: the next wave for SOCs from IoT to Datacenter” by Tony King-Smith, Executive Vice President, Marketing , Imagination Technologies
- “From Server-class to IoT SoCs: Enabling System