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Shorten the Learning Curve for High Level Synthesis

Shorten the Learning Curve for High Level Synthesis
by Daniel Payne on 01-27-2015 at 4:30 pm

When chip designers moved from a gate-level design methodology to coding with RTL there was a learning curve involved, and the same thing happens when you move from RTL to High Level Synthesis (HLS) using C++ or SystemC coding. One great shortcut to this learning curve is the use of pre-defined library functions. I just heard about… Read More


Sigrity Focuses on LPDDR4 Compliance Analysis in 2015 Release

Sigrity Focuses on LPDDR4 Compliance Analysis in 2015 Release
by Tom Simon on 01-27-2015 at 10:00 am

It was back in July of 2012 that the acquisition of Sigrity by Cadence was announced. Although Cadence is a dominant player in both IC and board layout tools, they did not have an electromagnetic (EM) signal integrity solution in their portfolio. This acquisition marks a turning point for the EM/SI sector – tight integration… Read More


FPGA vendor to buy IC vendor Silicon Image

FPGA vendor to buy IC vendor Silicon Image
by Eric Esteve on 01-27-2015 at 9:35 am

Interesting news today : Lattice Semiconductor, FPGA vendor is buying Silicon Image. In fact, Silicon Image is a chip vendor, but also an innovator, licensing well known IP like HDMI, MHL and more. If we consider the amount paid for Silicon Image ($600 million), compared with the last full year revenue, $276M in 2014, that’s a 2.2X… Read More


ANSYS Talks About Multi Physics for Thermal Analysis at DesignCon

ANSYS Talks About Multi Physics for Thermal Analysis at DesignCon
by Tom Simon on 01-27-2015 at 9:00 am

ANSYS makes a big deal of being a multi-physics company. Still it has taken them a while to fully integrate Apache. Nevertheless it seems like there is a compelling argument for combining technologies to solve SOC design problems. Frankly most chip designers would be hard pressed to think of a reason for using computational fluidRead More


Silvaco TCAD Webinar

Silvaco TCAD Webinar
by Paul McLellan on 01-26-2015 at 4:50 pm

TCAD is a somewhat specialized area since not that many people design semiconductor processes compared to the number who design chips. Bit without TCAD there would be no chips. One area where the two domains intersect is that of SEE, where neutrons (mainly) can cause a flop or a memory bit to change. Since we live on a radioactive planet… Read More


30+ Years of Semiconductors – The base matters!

30+ Years of Semiconductors – The base matters!
by Pawan Fangaria on 01-25-2015 at 10:00 am

Although CMOS technology in semiconductors was patented in 1960s, commercial ICs and electronic systems based on CMOS ICs started picking up in 1970s, and the real growth with personal computer (PC) market took place in 1980s. Then Intelmicroprocessors started dominating the semiconductor market with increasing processing… Read More


IBM to Humiliate 20% of Workforce?

IBM to Humiliate 20% of Workforce?
by Daniel Nenni on 01-25-2015 at 7:00 am

There are four big technology companies that I grew up with: Intel, Apple, Microsoft, and IBM. I still follow all four but it is sometimes hard to watch. Last week there was talk of a massive layoff at IBM and I have just confirmed it with my Upstate sources. According to an article in Forbes it will be 25% of the more than 400,000 workforce.… Read More


Industrial Internet “In-Security” – Awaiting a Cyber Pearl Harbor?

Industrial Internet “In-Security” – Awaiting a Cyber Pearl Harbor?
by Charles DiLisio on 01-24-2015 at 7:00 pm

You feel violated when internet intruders (hackers) cause digital harm (theft of social security numbers, credit cards, logins, e-mails or addresses), however, it’s frightening when organized cyber attacks destroy critical physical infrastructure (disrupt water, power or gas). Its annoying having to update passwords … Read More


Measuring Metastability

Measuring Metastability
by Jerry Cox on 01-24-2015 at 7:00 am

Measuring metastability is just 50 years old this year. In 1965 my colleague Tom Chaney took a sampling ‘scope picture of an ECL flip-flop going metastable. S. Lubkin had made mention of the phenomenon over a decade before that, but at that time most engineers were unaware of the phenomenon or did not believe it actually existed. … Read More


How Imagination tested the PowerVR Series6XT

How Imagination tested the PowerVR Series6XT
by Don Dingee on 01-23-2015 at 10:00 pm

We have been hearing for some time about the Synopsys HAPS-70 and how they have co-created the hardware and software architecture for FPGA-based prototyping with their customers. Now, we see details published by Synopsys on how they collaborated with Imagination on the design of the PowerVR Series6XT GPU.

The first thing to come… Read More