One of the most challenging stages in an SoC design is achieving timing closure. Actually design closure is perhaps a better term since everything needs to come together such as clock tree, power nets, power budget and so on. Changes made to the design are known as ECOs (which stands for engineering change orders, a term that comes… Read More



Taiwan Semiconductor Tries To Pull A FinFAST One!
This completely misleading title is from a Seeking Alpha (SA) article, a stock investment version of the National Enquirer. As I mentioned inA Call to ARMs, fame and fortune seeking SA Authors make a penny per click so sensationalism sells. The article is not worth your time so I will save you the click and skip to the misguided conclusion:… Read More
Should You Buy All Aspects of Your IP From a Single Supplier?
Interface IP typically consists of multiple layers, most importantly a PHY (level 1) analog (or mixed signal) block that handles the interface to the outside world and a number of levels of digital controllers. The interfaces between all these levels, especially between the PHY and the controller, is often defined by the interface… Read More
Swap and Play Extended To Chip Fabric and Memory Controllers
Virtual platforms enable software development to take place on a model of an electronic system. What everyone would like is models that are fast and accurate but that is simply not possible. Fast models are fast because they don’t model everything at the signal level. And accurate models get to be accurate by handling a lot of detail… Read More
Eldo and Pyxis from Mentor, DAC Update
Last Monday at DAC I met with Linda Fosler, Marketing Director at Mentor Graphics to get an update on what’s new with Eldo(Circuit simulator) and Pyxis (custom IC layout and schematic).
Linda Fosler, Mentor Graphics… Read More
Calibre Update at DAC
Mentor Graphics throws a very nice dinner party at DAC each year for journalists, bloggers and top customers, so this year I spoke with Michael Buehler-Garcia about what’s new with Calibre.
Michael Buehler-Garcia, Mentor Graphics
… Read More
Tela Innovations, DAC Update
Lawsuits in EDA are common, and Tela Innovationsfiled a huge complaint back in February with the U.S. International Trade Commission (USITC) against HTC Corporation; HTC America, Inc.; LG Electronics, Inc.; LG Electronics U.S.A., Inc.; LG Electronics MobileComm U.S.A., Inc.; Motorola Mobility LLC; Nokia Corporation; Nokia,… Read More
GPU-Based SPICE Simulator for Library Characterization
Jeff Tuanis the CEO and President of an EDA startup called G-Analog, founded in May 2012. His background includes working at: Cadence, Epic, Synopsys, Nassda, Chartered Semi and GLOBALFOUNDRIES. Jason Lu is the R&D manager. We met at DAC last week to talk about his company’s new product called Gchar for IC library characterization… Read More
Intel Plays to the 4 Horsemen of the Mobile Software World
Just at the moment we look for the mobile market to consolidate, it fractures along new fault lines as old allies become enemies and new business models appear in order to spur the ecosystem giants forward. It was not long ago that Android was let loose in an attempt to prove that the Mobile World is Flat. Ah but Samsung decided that it… Read More
Missed #50DAC? See Aldec Verification Sessions Online
Aldec, Inc. is an industry-leading Electronic Design Automation (EDA) company delivering innovative design creation, simulation and verification solutions to assist in the development of complex FPGA, ASIC, SoC and embedded system designs. With an active user community of over 35,000, 50+ global partners, offices worldwide… Read More
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