Performance verification is among the most challenging of objectives in any SoC verification plan. It’s difficult to start effectively until quite late in the development cycle, at which point you don’t have a lot of time left to develop extensive performance-oriented testbenches. So many teams adapt functional tests to this… Read More




Data Security – Why It Might Matter to Design and EDA
According to the Economist, “The world’s most valuable resource is no longer oil, but data”. Is this the case?Data is the by-product ofmany aspects of recent technology dynamics and is becoming the currency of today’s digital economy. All categories in Gartner’s Top10 Strategic Technology Trends for 2018 (Figure… Read More
FPGA Prototyping Exposed
In case you missed it, the FPGA Prototyping for SoCs webinar happened last week. I did the opening ceremonies which I will run through briefly here or you can go straight to the replay HERE.
FPGA prototyping is one of the fastest growing market segments we track on SemiWiki which brings us to the topic at hand: FPGA Prototyping for SoCs… Read More
Unexpected Help for Simulation from Machine Learning
I attend a lot of events on machine learning and write about it regularly. However, I learned some exciting new information about machine learning in a very surprising place recently. Every year for the last few years I have attended the HSPICE SIG dinner hosted by Synopsys in Santa Clara. This event starts with a vendor fair featuring… Read More
More Than Your Average IP Development Kit
When I think of an IP development kit, I imagine software plus a hardware model I can run on a prototyper or, closer to the kits offered by semi companies, software plus a board hosting an FPGA implementation of the IP along with DDR memory, flash and a variety of interfaces. These approaches work well for IP providers because hardware… Read More
IEDM 2017 – Leti Gate-All-Around Stacked-Nanowires
At IEDM in December I had a chance to interview Thomas Ernst about the paper “Performance and Design Considerations for Gate-All-around Stacked-NanoWires FETs” by Leti and STMicroelectonics.
Leti published the first stacked nanowire in 2006, it was very new then, now stacked nanowire/nanosheets are starting… Read More
Qualcomm Continues to Mislead its Own Stockholders
The war of words continues between Broadcom and Qualcomm and the stock analysts still seem to be split on the merger. Please note that Broadcom is proposing to merge with Qualcomm instead of a tender offer which is what Qualcomm has proposed for the acquisition on NXP. Same result but two very different approaches. Another interesting… Read More
Quantum computers may be more of an imminent threat than AI
Elon Musk, Stephen Hawking and others have been warning about runway artificial intelligence, but there may be a more imminent threat: quantum computing. It could pose a greater burden on businesses than the Y2K computer bug did toward the end of the ’90s.
Quantum computers are straight out of science fiction. Take the “traveling… Read More
Design Automation Conference Silicon and Technology Art Show
This year the 55th annual Design Automation Conference is in San Francisco and the Silicon and Technology Art Show, one of my favorite DAC events, is back! Favorite because it’s something my beautiful wife and I can share. She is very artistic and has an eye for colors and I actually know what the art is so we make a good team. I … Read More
Webinar: Multiphysics Reliability Signoff for Next-Generation Automotive Electronics Systems
In case you missed the TSMC event, ANSYS and TSMC are going to reprise a very important topic – signing-off reliability for ADAS and semi-autonomous /autonomous systems. This topic hasn’t had a lot of media attention amid the glamor and glitz of what might be possible in driverless cars. But it now seems like the cold light of real … Read More
Intel Foundry Delivers!