As chip complexity grows, so does the need for a well-thought-out design data management strategy. This is a hot area, and Cliosoft is in the middle of it. When I was at eSilicon, we used Cliosoft technology to manage the design and layout of high-performance analog designs across widely separated design teams. The tool worked… Read More





A Look at the Die of the 8086 Processor
The Intel 8086 microprocessor was introduced 42 years ago last month,1 so I made some high-res die photos of the chip to celebrate. The 8086 is one of the most influential chips ever created; it started the x86 architecture that still dominates desktop and server computing today. By looking at the chip’s silicon, we can see… Read More
Ansys Multiphysics Platform Tackles Power Management ICs
Ansys addresses complex Multiphysics simulation and analysis tasks, from device to chip to package and system. When I was at eSilicon we did a lot of work on 2.5D packaging and I can tell you tools from Ansys were a critical enabler to get the chip, package and system to all work correctly.
Ansys recently published an Application Brief… Read More
Hierarchical CDC analysis is possible, with the right tools
Back in my Atrenta days (before mid-2015), we were already running into a lot of very large SoC-level designs – a billion gates or more. At those sizes, full-chip verification of any kind becomes extremely challenging. Memory demand and run-times explode, and verification costs explode also since these runs require access to … Read More
SystemC Methodology for Virtual Prototype at DVCon USA
DVCon was the first EDA conference in our industry impacted by the pandemic and travel restrictions in March of this year, and the organizers did a superb job of adjusting the schedule. I was able to review a DVCon tutorial called “Defining a SystemC Methodology for your Company“, given by Swaminathan Ramachandran… Read More
Menta CEO Update 2020
What products are Menta offering today?
Menta is a semiconductor IP provider. We are the only proven European provider of programmable logic to be embedded inside customers’ SoCs and ASICs. This programmable logic is in the form of embedded FPGA IP. So, we offer our customers the possibility to have a small portion of their SoC as… Read More
Will AI Rescue the World from the Impending Doom of Cyber-Attacks or be the Cause
There has been a good deal of publicized chatter about impending cyber attacks at an unprecedented scale and how Artificial Intelligence (AI) could help stop them. Not surprisingly much of the discussion is led by AI vendors in the cybersecurity space. Although they have a vested interest in raising an alarm, they do have a … Read More
A Tour of This Year’s DAC IP Track with Randy Fish
DAC is a complex event with many “moving parts”. While the conference has gone virtual this year (as all events have), the depth of the event remains the same. The technical program has always been of top quality, with peer-reviewed papers presented across many topics and across the world. This is also the oldest part of DAC, dating… Read More
Sensors, AI, Tiny Power in a Turnkey Board.
Got a great idea for a device with AI at the extreme edge? Self-contained and can run on a coin cell battery, maybe even harvested energy? Needs to fit in a space not much larger than a quarter? Eta Compute has a board for you. This comes with 2 MEMS microphones, a pressure/temperature sensor, a 6-axis MEMS accelerometer/gyroscope,… Read More
Achronix Blog Roundup!
Blogging is not an easy thing to do. It takes time, patience, commitment, and creativity. SemiWiki brought blogging to the semiconductor industry and many companies have followed. Very few have been successful with personal or corporate blogs but as a premier semiconductor blogger I have developed a proven recipe over the last… Read More
Weebit Nano Moves into the Mainstream with Customer Adoption