“Strategy” is a word sometimes used loosely to lend an aura of visionary thinking, but in this context, it has a very concrete meaning. Without a strategy, you may be stuck with decisions you made on a first-generation design when implementing follow-on designs. Or face major rework to correct for issues you hadn’t foreseen. Making… Read More




Reconfigurable DSP and AI IP arrives in next-gen InferX
DSP and AI are generally considered separate disciplines with different application solutions. In their early stages (before programmable processors), DSP implementations were discrete, built around a digital multiplier-accumulator (MAC). AI inference implementations also build on a MAC as their primitive. If the interconnect… Read More
Tessent SSN Enables Significant Test Time Savings for SoC ATPG
SoC test challenges arise due to the complexity and diversity of the functional blocks integrated into the chip. As SoCs become more complex, it becomes increasingly difficult to access all of the functional blocks within the chip for testing. SoCs also can contain billions of transistors, making it extremely time-consuming… Read More
Podcast EP160: How Agile Analog Makes AMS Integration Easy with Chris Morrison
Dan is joined by Chris Morrison, Chris has 15 years’ experience in delivering innovative analog, digital, power management and audio solutions for International electronics companies, and developing strong relationships with key partners across the semiconductor industry. Currently he is the Director of Product Marketing… Read More
Chiplet Q&A with Henry Sheng of Synopsys
At the recent Synopsys Users Group Meeting (SNUG) I had the honor of leading a panel of experts on the topic of chiplets. One of those panelists was the very personable Dr. Henry Sheng, Group Director of R&D in the EDA Group at Synopsys. Henry currently leads engineering for 3DIC, advanced technology and visualization.
Are we
… Read MoreMemory Solutions for Modem, EdgeAI, Smart IoT and Wearables Applications
Memories have always played a critical role, both in pushing the envelope on the semiconductor process development front and supporting the varied requirements of different applications and use-cases. The list of the various types of memories in use today runs long. At a gross level, we can classify memories into volatile or … Read More
Alphawave Semi Showcases 3nm Connectivity Solutions and Chiplet-Enabled Platforms for High Performance Data Center Applications
There were quite a few announcements at the TSMC Technical Symposium last week but the most important, in my opinion, were based on TSMC N3 tape-outs. Not only is N3 the leading 3nm process it is the only one in mass production which is why all of the top tier semiconductor companies are using it. TSMC N3 will be the most successful node… Read More
Using ML for Statistical Circuit Verification
I’ve been following Solido as a start-up EDA vendor since 2005, then they were acquired by Siemens in 2017. At the recent User2User event there was a presentation by Kwonchil Kang, of Samsung Electronics on the topic, ML-enabled Statistical Circuit Verification Methodology using Solido. For high reliability circuits… Read More
Gate Resistance in IC design flow
MOSFET gate resistance is a very important parameter, determining many characteristics of MOSFETs and CMOS circuits, such as:
• Switching speed
• RC delay
• Fmax – maximum frequency of oscillations
• Gate (thermal) noise
• Series resistance and quality factor in MOS capacitors and varactors
• Switching speed and uniformity… Read More
Achieving Optimal PPA at Placement and Carrying it Through to Signoff
Performance, Power and Area (PPA) metrics are the driving force in the semiconductor market and impact all electronic products that are developed. PPA tradeoff decisions are not engineering decisions, but rather business decisions made by product companies as they decide to enter target end markets. As such, the sooner a company… Read More
Rethinking Multipatterning for 2nm Node