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It’s a 14nm photomask, what could possibly go wrong?

It’s a 14nm photomask, what could possibly go wrong?
by Don Dingee on 08-27-2013 at 3:16 pm

Let’s start with the bottom line: in 14nm processes, errors which have typically been little more than noise with respect to photomask critical dimension (CD) control targets at larger process nodes are about to become very significant, even out of control if not accounted for.… Read More


FPGAs The Life Savers

FPGAs The Life Savers
by Luke Miller on 08-27-2013 at 1:00 pm

Silicon dominates our lives, CPU’s, GPU’s are in the limelight but the unsung hero is the FPGA. They simply do the work where other silicon dare not tread, as they are unfit for the task. Never send a boy to do a man’s job.

For a moment, if we can, just for a few minutes perhaps we can break away from the social media bubble… Read More


Mobile SoC will benefit now from M-PCIe

Mobile SoC will benefit now from M-PCIe
by Eric Esteve on 08-27-2013 at 10:12 am

We have already discussed the recently released M-PCIe ECN from PCI-SIG in Semiwiki at the end of 2012, but the new “standard” (in fact an Engineering Change from PCI-SIG and MIPI Alliance) was only real on paper, at that time. The upcoming webinar from Synopsys, M-PCIe: Utilizing Low-Power PCI Express in Mobile Designs, shows … Read More


Wall St. Takes the Wheel at Wintel

Wall St. Takes the Wheel at Wintel
by Ed McKernan on 08-26-2013 at 5:45 pm

It now appears that Steve Ballmer was suddenly given his walking papers at the urging of an activist investor (ValueAct) and with the concurrence of Bill Gates. Wall Street’s growing impatience tends to coincide when the Innovators Dilemma scenario has taken hold of a company that has been unable to overcome its challengers. Why… Read More


Ballmer’s Retirement Leaves Nokia High and Dry

Ballmer’s Retirement Leaves Nokia High and Dry
by Paul McLellan on 08-26-2013 at 5:36 pm

It looks to me as if Ballmer’s planned resignation from Microsoft is going to leave Nokia high and dry without an operating system. Because any successor to Ballmer will cancel Windows Phone which has managed to take Microsoft’s penetration in smartphones from 5% before it had a serious partnership with Nokia all … Read More


LSI’s Experience With Formality Ultra

LSI’s Experience With Formality Ultra
by Paul McLellan on 08-26-2013 at 5:36 pm

LSI is an early adopter of Formality Ultra, Synopsys’s tool for improving the entire ECO flow. I already wrote about the basic capability of the tool here. ECOs are changes that come very late in the design cycle, after place and route has already been “nearly” completed. They occur either due to last minute spec… Read More


Something old, something new in SystemC HLS

Something old, something new in SystemC HLS
by Don Dingee on 08-26-2013 at 5:00 pm

Perhaps no area in EDA has been as enigmatic as high-level synthesis (HLS). At nearly every industry event, some new-fangled tool always seems to be tabbed as the next big thing by some analyst or pundit. In a twist, the latest news is on one of the oldest tools – CybeWorkBench.… Read More


Ten Ways Your Synchronizer MTBF May Be Wrong

Ten Ways Your Synchronizer MTBF May Be Wrong
by Jerry Cox on 08-25-2013 at 10:30 pm

Estimating the MTBF of an SoC should always include an analysis of synchronizer reliability. Contemporary process nodes are introducing new challenges to the reliability of clock domain crossings so it is prudent to revisit how your simulation tool calculates a synchronizer’s MTBF. Let’s list the ten most common pitfalls.… Read More


Security Needs in On-Chip Networks

Security Needs in On-Chip Networks
by Randy Smith on 08-25-2013 at 8:15 pm

I remember during my first ten years as a software developer, I used many different computers such as IBM mainframes, Apollo and Sun workstations, and VAX computers. During that time I also bought my first home computer, a Macintosh. I didn’t of course think of this at the time, but the one thing they all had in common was that they did… Read More


The TSMC OIP Technical Paper Abstracts are up!

The TSMC OIP Technical Paper Abstracts are up!
by Daniel Nenni on 08-25-2013 at 8:10 pm

The TSMC Open Innovation Platform® (OIP) Ecosystem Forum brings TSMC’s design ecosystem member companies together to share with our customers real-case solutions for customers’ design challenges and success stories of best practice in TSMC’s design ecosystem.

More than 90% of the attendees last year said “this… Read More