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Seeing inside SoC designs, from the beginning

Seeing inside SoC designs, from the beginning
by Don Dingee on 01-31-2013 at 8:10 pm

Engineers have this fascination with how things work. They are thrilled to tear stuff apart, and sometimes to even be able to put it back together afterwords. So I can keep my recovering engineer card, I thought I’d take a few moments and look inside a technology Daniel Payne and I have been covering here, exploring where the idea started… Read More


Dynamic/Leakage Power Reduction in Memories

Dynamic/Leakage Power Reduction in Memories
by Daniel Nenni on 01-31-2013 at 8:05 pm

Embedded memories have an important impact on power. SoCs that integrate multiple functions on a single silicon die are at the heart of many electronic devices. As process geometries have scaled, design teams have used more and more of the additional silicon real estate available to integrate embedded memories that serve as scratch-pads,… Read More


TSMC ♥ Oasys

TSMC ♥ Oasys
by Paul McLellan on 01-31-2013 at 8:05 pm

Oasys has joined the TSMC Soft-IP Alliance Program. This means that TSMC IP partners have access to a new RTL exploration tool to improve QoR and reduce the iterations needed for design closure. In modern process nodes, RTL engineers implementing complex IP cores for graphics, networking, and mobile computing are struggling … Read More


Advanced Technology-Design-Manufacturing Co-optimization

Advanced Technology-Design-Manufacturing Co-optimization
by Daniel Nenni on 01-31-2013 at 7:00 pm

I spent some quality time with Subi Kengeri, Vice President, Technology Architecture, Office of the CTO, GLOBALFOUNDRIES in Las Vegas during CES. Great guy, he worked at Silicon Access, Virage and TSMC before GF. One thing you should know about embedded memory guys, SRAM is the first thing that goes through a new process so they … Read More


Building Energy-Efficient ICs from the Ground Up

Building Energy-Efficient ICs from the Ground Up
by Daniel Payne on 01-31-2013 at 6:02 pm

My oldest son just upgraded Smart Phones from a 3″ display to a 4.5″ display and was shocked to discover that his battery barely lasted 8 hours, so I welcomed him to the reality of limited battery life in modern SoC-based mobile devices. There is some hope in increasing battery life for our consumer-oriented devices … Read More


Going to DAC 2013 in Austin? The Country’s Best Barbecue is a 20 Minute Walk

Going to DAC 2013 in Austin? The Country’s Best Barbecue is a 20 Minute Walk
by Paul McLellan on 01-30-2013 at 8:05 pm

Going to DAC? I just booked my plane ticket last weekend since flights from the Bay Area to wherever DAC is are so often overbooked. It’s in Austin this year in case you’ve been living under a rock. There are lots of reasons to go, from the academic conference to the world’s biggest EDA exhibition. And here is one … Read More


Catch Jasper at SemiIsrael Verification Day and at DVCon 2013

Catch Jasper at SemiIsrael Verification Day and at DVCon 2013
by Paul McLellan on 01-30-2013 at 4:08 pm

Jasper is presenting at both ends of the world at both ends of February.

First in Israel, it is SemiIsrael Verification Day 2013 on February 5th (next Tuesday) at Green House in Tel Aviv.

  • Zihad Hanna, VP of Research and Chief Architect and General Manager of Jasper Israel will be talking about Security Formal Verification of Hardware
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Virtuoso is 20nm-ready

Virtuoso is 20nm-ready
by Paul McLellan on 01-30-2013 at 1:47 pm

I already talked about how Cadence is splitting Virtuoso into two. Anyway, it is now officially announced. The 6.1 version will continue to be developed as a sort of Virtuoso classic for people doing designs off the bleeding edge that don’t require the new features. And a new Virtuoso 12.1 intended for people doing 20nm and… Read More


Mentor Snags Two Awards at DesignCon

Mentor Snags Two Awards at DesignCon
by Beth Martin on 01-29-2013 at 8:44 pm

Oh, awards season! The glitz! The glamour! The most important and innovative new design products!

That last part is a key feature of the annual DesignVision awards and the Best in Test awards presented at DesignCon 2013. Mentor Graphics’ test products scored two wins: a DesignVision award for their new Tessent IJTAG product, and… Read More


Improving Methodology the NVIDIA Way

Improving Methodology the NVIDIA Way
by Paul McLellan on 01-29-2013 at 2:57 pm

I was at DesignCon in Santa Clara today and listened to Jonah Alben of NVIDIA’s keynote on what their approach is to improving design methodology. He started by pointing out that most companies underinvest in EDA (and he includes NVIDIA in this). Partially it is complaceny: that last chip taped out so we know we can do it again.… Read More