Enterprise design management can be summed up in one word: collaboration. Intellectual property (IP) reuse and the success of distributed system-on-chip (SoC) design efforts depend strongly on how well designers can collaborate. As time-to-market windows have shortened, the challenges around design collaboration have… Read More




Integrity and Reliability in Analog and Mixed-Signal
In the largest and fastest growing categories in electronics – mobile, IoT and automotive – analog is playing an increasingly important role. It’s important in delivering high integrity power and critical signals to the design though LDO regulators and PLLs, in managing high speed interfaces like DDR and SERDES, in interfacing… Read More
New Transistor Sizing Company at #53DAC
I first met Herve Guegan at Mentor Graphics back in the late 90’s when he managed a group of developers for the SPICE circuit simulator called Eldo in Grenoble, France. We’ve kept in touch over the years and he asked to meet me at DAC in Austin this year, so I caught up with him to get an update on his latest start-up company… Read More
AVS 2016: Table Set for Tesla Tussle
As predicted, by me, the anti-Tesla and anti-autonomous vehicle forces are gathering in the wake of the recent fatal Tesla Model S crash in Florida. The rising resistance arrives one week in advance of next week’s Automated Vehicles Symposium in San Francisco – setting the stage for a spirited debate.… Read More
Safety = Security?
Have you ever wondered what the difference is between safety and security? I would be surprised if you had unless you work in these areas as we tend to use the words interchangeably. Languages such as German, Norwegian and Spanish have one word to mean both – or so I am told by my associates who claim those languages as their mother… Read More
Why Is The Modem Still The Unsung Hero Of Mobility?
The unsung hero of the mobile world is not the CPU, it isn’t the GPU, it isn’t even the memory. All of those components have grown extremely quickly in recent years in terms of processing capability, capacity and the ability to shrink thanks to improvements in process technology. The CPU and the GPU seem to get all the accolades, too.… Read More
Safety Verification for Software
When automakers are thinking about the safety of an embedded system in a car, while it’s good to know the hardware has been comprehensively tested for safety-specific requirements, that isn’t much help if the software component of the system is not supplied with similarly robust guarantees.
The challenge is that the software … Read More
IC and System Design for Mobile and Wearable Devices!
The Linley Mobile and Wearable Conference is coming up so let’s take a look at what is in store for us. Bernard Murphy, Tom Simon, and I will be covering the event live for SemiWiki and we will also be doing a book giveaway/signing for our new “Prototypical” book (compliments of S2C Inc.) during the networking event on Tuesday evening.… Read More
Webinar alert – Hybrid prototyping for ARMv8
All the talk about ARM server SoCs has been focused on who will come up with the breakthrough chip design. Watching trends like OPNFV develop suggests the big breakthrough is more likely to come on the ARMv8 software side. How do you quickly validate ARMv8 software when you don’t have the exact ARMv8 SoC target?… Read More
Autonomous Driving @ the Crossroads
One of the most terrifying moments one can experience as a driver or passenger in a Tesla Model S driving with autopilot turned on is the realization that the system cannot recognize intersections or traffic lights. It seems like such a basic and obvious requirement for automated driving but the Model S can’t hack it –… Read More
Should Intel be Split in Half?