I thought I write about one of the most important subjects in FPGAs, that is power. Power of course is not just based on node size, and it is funny why so many people are concerned about node size. If not just as important is the architectural decisions that drive down power. Do you really care if your part is 16nm or 14nm? Or do you care more… Read More
Two Perspectives on Automated Code GenerationIn engineering development, automated code generation as a…Read More
Static Timing Analysis Signoff - A comprehensive and Robust ApproachBy Zameer Mohammed Once a chip is taped…Read More
Beyond Traditional OOO: A Time-Based, Slice-Based Approach to High-Performance RISC-V CPUsFor decades, high-performance CPU design has been dominated…Read More
Orchestrating IC verification: Harmonize complexity for faster time-to-marketBy Marko Suominen and Slava Zhuchenya of Siemens…Read More
Wally Rhines at #51DAC: EDA Grows From Solving New Problems
Wally Rhines gave the keynote at DAC in 2004. One of the things that he pointed out ten years ago was that EDA revenue for any given market segment is pretty much flat once the initial growth phase has taken place and the market has been established. Incremental EDA revenue only comes from delivering new capabilities. Historically… Read More
ESL Tool Update from #51DAC
As promised in my May 27th blog, I visited an ESL company at DAC three weeks ago that introduced two new tools:
- Thermal Profiler
- Power Intelligence
Internet of Things (IoT) Startup Showcase @ SEMICON West!
It’s hard to believe that SEMICON West is upon us once again at the Moscone Center in San Francisco. This is the premier semiconductor conference for cutting-edge equipment, processes, and materials, to solutions to today’s design and manufacturing challenges. Remember, it’s not what you know (because … Read More
Is SOI Really Less Expensive?
Introduction
There have been some claims made recently that planar Fully Depleted Silicon On Insulator (FDSOI) is less expensive than bulk planar processes and FinFETs at various nodes. Some of these claims suggest that FinFETs in particular are significantly more expensive. My company, IC Knowledge LLC produces the most widely… Read More
The “Key” to Reality
If we wanted to reduce the definition of authentication to its most Zen-like simplicity, we could say authentication is “keeping things real.” To keep something real you need to have some sort of confirmation of its identity, as confirmation is the key (so to speak).… Read More
Cliff Hou’s DAC Keynote
Cliff Hou had two major appearances at DAC this year. He gave the opening day keynote…and he wrote the forward to Dan and my bookFabless: the Transformation of the Semiconductor Industry which about 1500 lucky people got a copy of courtesy of several companies, most notably eSilicon who sponsored the Tuesday evening post-conference… Read More
The Secret Essence of an IoT Design
Today the semiconductor industry along with electronics industry is looking up to capitalize from massive expansion foreseen in IoT (Internet of Things) domain. In simple terms we can consider IoT as connectivity between machines which can communicate with each other and work as programmed. In localized applications such … Read More
Intel Invests in the Fabless Ecosystem!
During my illustrious career one of the most useful axioms that I use just about everyday day is: “Understand what people say but also understand why they are saying it.” This certainly applies to press releases so let’s take a look at what Intel unleashed during #51DAC (in alphabetical order):
ANSYS And Intel Collaborate… Read More
ARC EM DSP supports Always-on Devices
The ARC EM family is the low-power, embedded and low footprint processor part of the larger ARC processor. To target the ultra low-power markets like wearable and IoT, Synopsys has added DSP capabilities to EM5D and EM7D. To be specific, these cores are optimized for ultra low-power control and DSP, thanks to:
- Energy-efficient
Intel’s Pearl Harbor Moment