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How to make ESL really work – see EDPS

How to make ESL really work – see EDPS
by John Swan on 04-12-2013 at 6:53 pm

The Electronic Design Process Symposium (EDPS) is April 18 & 19 in Monterey. The workshop style Symposium is in its 20[SUP]th[/SUP] year. The first session is titled “ESL & Platforms”, which immediately follows the opening Keynote address by Ivo Bolsens, CTO of Xilinx.

In his keynote presentation Ivo will present how… Read More


High Level Synthesis – It’s for Real

High Level Synthesis – It’s for Real
by Luke Miller on 04-11-2013 at 8:30 pm

It was spring 2010 and I was asked to attend an HLS (High Level Synthesis) meeting. To be honest I cringed, after my bad relationship with Accel DSP and broken promises my heart was all walled up and needed counseling. But my management had a way of making me an offer I could not refuse, like keeping my job. So reluctantly I went. Does your… Read More


Berkeley Design Automation and the Cadence Legal Action!

Berkeley Design Automation and the Cadence Legal Action!
by Daniel Nenni on 04-11-2013 at 7:30 pm

SemiWiki broke the story yesterday about the Cadence legal action against Berkeley Design Automation and today I spent time with customers of both companies in Silicon Valley getting reactions. That is the advantage of working in Silicon Valley for almost 30 years, if you don’t know the right people, you certainly know the people… Read More


Fabless to OIP

Fabless to OIP
by Paul McLellan on 04-10-2013 at 7:22 pm

Suk Lee drew the short straw at the TSMC Symposium yesterday, with the 5pm slot. Not only late in the day but between all the attendees and free beer. The morning sessions had been standing room only, with several hundred standees (as they call them on muni around here, but isn’t a standee really someone being stood on?). But … Read More


Mentor U2U, Not Your Father’s User Conference

Mentor U2U, Not Your Father’s User Conference
by Paul McLellan on 04-10-2013 at 6:00 pm

I talked to Michael Buehler-Garcia about the changes Mentor is making to U2U, their user conference. It is in San Jose on April 25th at the DoubleTree.

Firstly, there are 3 great keynotes, two of whom I’ve seen speak before and can unreservedly recommend. Unfortunately I’m traveling that week and won’t be able… Read More


Cadence Sues Berkeley Design Automation

Cadence Sues Berkeley Design Automation
by Paul McLellan on 04-10-2013 at 10:03 am

Cadence has brought a suit against Berkeley Design Automation for, as far as I can see, integrating their AFS circuit simulator with the Virtuoso Analog Design Environment (ADE) without using the (licensed) Oasis product. Since BDA is (actually was) a member of the Cadence Connections program, they have to abide by the contract… Read More


GlobalFoundries in Singapore

GlobalFoundries in Singapore
by Paul McLellan on 04-09-2013 at 11:12 pm

I hosted a webinar today for GlobalFoundries. Yes, I know that today was TSMC’s Technology Symposium, we weren’t that smart when we picked the date. It was basically a “fireside chat” with me as the moderator asking the questions and Paul Colestock and Aabid Husain as my guests. We actually did it at Cadence… Read More


Manage your IC’s Stress for right performance

Manage your IC’s Stress for right performance
by Pawan Fangaria on 04-09-2013 at 9:30 pm

As we have moved towards lower process nodes to improve performance of ICs with higher density and functionality, many manufacturing effects have appeared which can render ICs useless, even though the layout design could be correct as per traditional design rules. What is more worrisome is the variability of these effects which… Read More


How Long Does it Take to Go From a Muddy Field to Full 28nm Capacity?

How Long Does it Take to Go From a Muddy Field to Full 28nm Capacity?
by Paul McLellan on 04-09-2013 at 4:02 pm


TSMC has a lot of capacity. Not just that, it has a lot more under construction. It currently has 3 300mm Gigafabs, fabs 12,14 and 15 (there doesn’t seem to be a 13). This morning, Dr Wang, who is TSMC’s VP of 300mm operations told us about the expansion plans. Currently fab 15 phase 3 and 4, and fab 12 phase 3 are to be ramped… Read More


RTL Power Optimization

RTL Power Optimization
by Paul McLellan on 04-09-2013 at 10:23 am

More so than most aspects of design, power reduction suffers from a paradox that early in the design cycle when the gains are the largest, the accuracy of power estimation is the lowest, and then late in the design cycle, when everything is known pretty much exactly it is too late to make anything other than trivial optimizations. … Read More