Many advanced algorithmic IPs are described in C++. We use this language because of its flexibility. Of course software algorithms are written to be executed on processors so they don’t solve all the issues of getting the algorithm implemented in hardware directly. This is not simply a high-level synthesis (HLS) issue. Usually… Read More
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Using Virtual Platforms to Make IP Decisions
Most SoC designs these days consist largely, but not entirely, of purchased IP blocks. But there are lots of tradeoffs involved in selecting IP blocks, and since those tradeoffs change with process node, even decisions that seem “obvious” based on the last generation of the design, may not be so clear cut. Even if you… Read More
GSA European Executive Forum
The first week of June is DAC in Austin of course. But over in Europe, the Wednesday and Thursday of that week, June 5-6th is the GSA European Executive Forum, bringing C-level executives together from all over Europe. It actually runs from 2pm on Wednesday until about 2pm on Thursday including a VIP dinner on Wednesday evening sponsored… Read More
TSMC ♥ Solido
Process variation has been a top trending term since SemiWiki began as a result of the articles, wikis, and white papers posted on the Solido landing page. Last year Solido and TSMC did a webinar together, an article in EETimes, and Solido released a book on the subject. Process variation is a challenge today at 28nm and it gets worse… Read More
FPGAs – The Possibilities are Endless – Almost
Has your wife ever said “Your name, I’m not a computer”? Well maybe mine has. I know what you are thinking… This guy is married? Yup, I over achieved too. Have child #7 on the way Lord willing, so you probably guessed I don’t follow much of the world’s planning and such. Like you, no one in my house really understands what I do, nor cares … Read More
Mentor CEO Wally Rhines U2U Keynote
You will never meet a more approachable CEO in the semiconductor ecosystem than Dr. Walden C. Rhines. The first time I met Wally was way back when I blogged for food and he invited me over for lunch. Even better, a year or two later I was having dinner with a friend at the DBL Tree in San Jose. Wally was waiting for his flight home so he joined… Read More
When installing a sink, it’s a lot faster to buy a saw
Mentor’s announcement from Design West this week pretty much signals the end of standalone ESL tools, in favor of more useful stuff. They have pulled the pieces of their Sourcery CodeBench environment along with their embedded Linux offering and their Vista virtual prototyping platform into a native embedded software development… Read More
Morris Chang on Altera and Intel
If you want to know why I have written so much about TSMC in the past five years here it is: TSMC executives are approachable, personable, answer questions straight on, and have yet to lead me astray. If you want an example of this read the Chairman’s comments on the TSMC Q1 2013 earnings call transcript.
“On 16-nanometer FinFET, we … Read More
Best Practice for RTL Power Design for Mobile
Mobile devices are taking over the world. If you want lots of graphs and data then look at Mary Meeker’s presentation that I blogged about earlier this week. The graph on the right is just one datapoint, showing that mobile access to the internet is probably up to about 15% now from a standing start 5 years ago.
Of course, one obvious… Read More
Bring high end camera image quality to smartphone
We have to go back to 2008 to understand why Super Resolution is desperately needed by smartphone users, expecting to take high quality pictures with their smartphone, at least as good quality as with their camera. It’s in 2008 that smartphone worldwide shipments have surpassed standalone compact camera shipments… and we don’t… Read More
IEDM 2025 – TSMC 2nm Process Disclosure – How Does it Measure Up?