A few months ago, I wrote about the announcement of a new digital full flow from Cadence. In that piece, I focused on the machine learning (ML) aspects of the new tool. I had covered a discussion with Cadence’s Paul Cunningham a week before that explored ML in Cadence products, so it was timely to dive into a real-world example of the … Read More




A Compelling Application for AI in Semiconductor Manufacturing
There have been a multitude of announcements recently relative to the incorporation of machine learning (ML) methods into EDA tool algorithms, mostly in the physical implementation flows. For example, deterministic ML-based decision algorithms applied to cell placement and signal interconnect routing promise to expedite… Read More
Teaching AI to be Evil with Unethical Data
An Artificial Intelligence (AI) system is only as good as its training. For AI Machine Learning (ML) and Deep Learning (DL) frameworks, the training data sets are a crucial element that defines how the system will operate. Feed it skewed or biased information and it will create a flawed inference engine.
Application-Specific Lithography: The 5nm 6-Track Cell
An update is now available here: Application-Specific Lithography: Patterning 5nm 5.5-Track Metal by DUV
The 5nm foundry (e.g., TSMC) node may see the introduction of 6-track cells (two double-width rails plus four minimum-width dense lines) with a minimum metal pitch in the neighborhood of 30 nm. IMEC had studied a representative… Read More
What is Zero Trust Model (ZTM)
The Zero Trust Model of information #security simplifies how #information security is conceptualized by assuming there are no longer “trusted” interfaces, applications, traffic, networks, or users. It takes the old model— “trust but verify”—and inverts it, because recent breaches have proven that when an organization trusts,… Read More
The Time Has Arrived for AI Based Data Twinning! Shrink the Pipe while Increasing Data Fidelity
Time to Change our Thinking:
It is time to work the other side of the communications equation. Send less data. But apply new synthetic data science and machine learning to get more and richer information: a way that requires the transfer of radically fewer actual bits – perhaps 1 or 2% of the bits – but with higher model fidelity.… Read More
Tears in the Rain – Arm and China JVs
We always warn clients that even in the best of times, Joint Ventures (JVs) in China always end in tears. And we are far from the best of times right now. There is a major example of this playing out right now with Arm China.
Arm’s China JV is, to put it simply, a bit of a mess. The Board has fired the CEO, but he has refused to leave. And owing… Read More
Fast and Accurate Variation-Aware Mixed-Signal Verification of Time-Domain 2-Step ADC
There is an interesting white paper out from Mentor on how a customer used the Solido Varation Designer tool to reduce Monte Carlo simulations. As you may know I worked for Solido for 10+ years up until they were acquired by Mentor in December of 2017. It was an incredible personal and professional experience. I have the highest respect… Read More
COVID-19: Through the Rearview Mirror
The COVID-19 pandemic has turned the business of reporting news into a funhouse mirror where reality is distorted, up is down, and hopes for improving health and marketplace conditions are simultaneously raised and dashed on a daily basis. The latest news-driven whiplash moment arrived this morning care of the Detroit Free Press
Staying on the Right Side in Worst Case Conditions – Performance (Part 2)
In this, the second part of a two-part series we delve further into defining worst case, this time focusing specifically on device performance.
In the last blog we talked about the steady increase in power density per unit silicon area and how worst case is definitely getting worse. We discussed how in each new FinFET node the dynamic… Read More
Intel’s Pearl Harbor Moment