As SoCs have got more complex, and with a larger and larger software content, it is no longer good enough to just monitor how the design behaves using simulation and then completely forget about it once the design is complete. What is required is the capability to monitor the design in real time (in silicon or FPGA) to see how it is behaving.… Read More





A New Digital Place and Route System
IC place and route tools can be very high-priced EDA software to purchase or lease, so there’s some good news for AMS designers that need an affordable digital place and route tool for their mostly analog designs. Today the team at Tanner EDAannounced a totally new place and route system has been added to their Schematic Driven… Read More
SerDes: Four Wires Are Better Than Two
Kandou Bus SA has recently been proposing the technique ENRZ (Ensemble Non Return to Zero) for use as the next generation interconnect standard for the 56 Gb/s generation of interconnect interfaces at the OIF (Optical Interconnect Forum). ENRZ is technique where three bits are orthogonally modulated over four correlated wires.… Read More
Dinner with Dr. Walden C. Rhines!
You are cordially invited to have dinner with my favorite EDA CEO, Dr. Walden C. Rhines (the C stands for Clark by the way). Wally will be the dinner keynote speaker at the Electronic Design Process Symposium on April 17[SUP]th[/SUP] at the Yacht Club in Monterey. When registering use Promo Code: SemiWikiGofor $50 off. Such a deal!… Read More
SEMulator3D 2014 – New Enhancements for Virtual Fabrication in the 3D IC Era
A Virtual Platform for any kind of design or manufacturing in any discipline of science or engineering (electrical, mechanical, aeronautics etc.) must be able to provide an accurate representation of an actual design/product in a fraction of time and cost it takes to build working prototypes. In the case of semiconductors at … Read More
MIPI IP segment to reach $100M? Yes, …
… in 2019. At that time, the total Interface IP market is expected to weight between $900 million and $1 billion. If we want to understand this IP market segment dynamics, we have to look at protocol based products like USB (from USB 1.0 defined in 1996 at 12 Mbit/s to USB 3.1 supporting 10 Gbps data rate) or PCI Express (from PCIe gen-1… Read More
What is Next for GLOBALFOUNDRIES?
In response to changing industry dynamics, AMD announced in October 2008 a new strategy to focus exclusively on the design phase of semiconductor product development. To achieve that strategy, AMD partnered with Advanced Technology Investment Company (ATIC) of Abu Dhabi to create a new joint venture company designed to become… Read More
Xilinx and Red Pitaya is Tootie Fruity
Xilinx’s Zynq SoC is the best selling FPGA of all time. Zynq has brought together, at first an uncomfortable but necessary mix of software and hardware engineers. Two very different but special kind of people. Me, I’m of the hardware persuasion. Zynq is the start of the much needed open FPGA community. This will drive down the price… Read More
Semiconductor IP Validation Gets Faster
Semiconductor IP continues to grow in use for SoC design, and many chips can now use hundreds of IP blocks from multiple vendors. Validating the quality of the IP blocks is an important step in the design process, and you could perform manual validation and inspection of each new IP block at the expense of time and engineering effort.… Read More
A Brief History of Mobiveil
Semiconductor IP is a relatively established frontier for innovation in Silicon Valley but it is not as easy as it looks. It certainly is not as easy as the two year old start-up Mobiveil has made it look. With a team of more than 100, led by experienced Semiconductor IP professionals, Mobiveil already has a portfolio of silicon proven… Read More
Facing the Quantum Nature of EUV Lithography