The quest for bigger FPGA-based prototyping platforms continues, in lockstep with each new generation of faster, higher capacity FPGAs. The arrival of the Xilinx Virtex UltraScale+ VU19P FPGA takes capacity to new levels and adds transceiver and I/O bandwidth. When these slot into S2C’s Prodigy S7-19P Logic System, the result… Read More




Inverse Lithography Technology – A Status Update from TSMC
“Inverse lithography technology (ILT) represents the most significant EDA advance in the last two decades.” Danping Peng from TSMC made that assertion at the recent SPIE Advanced Lithography + Patterning Conference, in his talk entitled: ILT for HVM: History, Present, and Future. This article summarizes the highlights… Read More
Unlock first-time-right complex photonic integrated circuits
The capacity and energy efficiency challenges from the growing appetite for high-speed data along with advanced applications such as LIDAR and quantum computing are driving demand for increasingly large-scale photonic integrated circuits (PIC). With an ever-increasing number of components on a single photonic chip, manual… Read More
Coding Guidelines for Datapath Verification
It has been an article of faith that you can’t use formal tools to validate datapath logic (math components). Formal is for control logic, not datapath, we now realize. We understood the reason – wide inputs (32-bit, 64-bit or more) fed through a multiplier deliver eye-watering state space sizes. State space explosions also happen… Read More
Importance of an Analytics Platform Before Migrating to the Cloud
After many years of hesitancy to jump with both feet in, semiconductor companies are seriously considering implementing cloud strategies and making required investments. Their concern though is, how much investment is it going to take? Some of the block-and-tackle challenges they face in implementing a cloud strategy are … Read More
0.55 High-NA Lithography Update
At the recent SPIE Advanced Lithography + Patterning Conference, Mark Phillips from Intel gave an insightful update on the status of the introduction of the 0.55 high numerical aperture extreme ultraviolet lithography technology. Mark went so far as to assert that the development progress toward high-NA EUV would support … Read More
Using EM/IR Analysis for Efinix FPGAs
I’ve been following the EM/IR (Electro-Migration, IR is current and resistance) analysis market for many years now, and recently attended a presentation from Steven Chin, Sr. Director IC Engineering of Efinix, at the User2User event organized by Siemens EDA. The Tuesday presentation was in the morning at the Marriott… Read More
Die-to-Die IP enabling the path to the future of Chiplets Ecosystem
The topic of chiplets is getting a lot of attention these days. The chiplet movement has picked up more momentum since Moore’s law started slowing down as process technology approached 5nm. With the development cost of a monolithic SoC crossing the $500M and wafer yields of large die-based chips dropping steeply, the decision … Read More
Connecting Everything, Everywhere, All at Once
The automotive industry is rapidly coming to the realization that connecting cars is about so much more than simply adding a modem, an antenna, and a bit of software. Connecting cars and connecting car owners with an attractive connectivity value proposition may be two of the most difficult things the industry has ever attempted.… Read More
Podcast EP82: The Critical Need for Reliability in Future Products
Dan is joined by Charlie Slayman, technical leader at Cisco Systems working on reliability physics and risk assessment of advanced semiconductor technology. He is also the general chair of the International Reliability Physics Symposium, or IRPS which is the focus of the discussion.
Dan explores the rapidly growing application… Read More
Weebit Nano Moves into the Mainstream with Customer Adoption