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Circuit Analysis & Debugging

Circuit Analysis & Debugging
by Daniel Payne on 03-30-2013 at 3:18 pm

Spice Debugger

In EDA we often talk about how fast a SPICE circuit simulator is, or about capacity and accuracy compared to silicon measurements. Yes, speed, capacity and accuracy are important, however when talking to actual transistor-level circuit designers you discover something quite different, most of their time is spent doing debugging,… Read More


An Analog IC Router

An Analog IC Router
by Daniel Payne on 03-29-2013 at 8:10 pm

Earlier this week I wrote about a Goliath in EDA, Synopsys, and their new analog router, today it’s the David in EDA, Pulsic and their Unity Analog Router. I spoke with several people from Pulsic by phone:

  • Christopher Jost – San Jose
  • Dave Noble – San Jose
  • Fumiaki Sato – Tokyo, Japan
Read More

Dan Niles Economic Review: Q1 is the Bottom

Dan Niles Economic Review: Q1 is the Bottom
by Paul McLellan on 03-29-2013 at 7:38 pm

Every quarter GSA runs a webinar with Dan Niles of Alpha One Capital Partners on what the semiconductor outlook is. He doesn’t actually focus on the semiconductor industry itself, demand for chips is really driven by economic conditions in the major markets around the world. People who are unemployed, or in Cyprus, don’t… Read More


Design Automation Conference: Go For It!

Design Automation Conference: Go For It!
by Paul McLellan on 03-29-2013 at 5:35 pm

The conference program for DAC is now live here including the conference itself, keynotes, some other special tracks, the pavilion panels and more. And the must-see panel is on emulation at 4pm on Tuesday afternoon moderated by…well, that would be me so I’m a bit biased.

Registration is now open here for both attendees… Read More


Mentor at TSMC Technology Symposium

Mentor at TSMC Technology Symposium
by glforte on 03-29-2013 at 11:41 am

TSMC will host their annual technology symposium at several locations in the U.S. on April 9th in San Jose, April 16th in Austin, and April 23rd in Boston. TSMC will discuss the market outlook, design enablement, and technology for high-speed computing, mobile communications, connectivity and storage, CIS, embedded flash, … Read More


Signal integrity: more than just SerDes analysis

Signal integrity: more than just SerDes analysis
by Don Dingee on 03-29-2013 at 1:00 am

When Cadence acquired Sigrity in 2012, two motives were involved: get more competitive in state of the art signal integrity analysis, and grab a foothold into the other vendor’s PCB flows in an area that is developing as a real sore spot for digital designers.

Just as the days where PCB tape-out meant actually using tape are over, … Read More


TSMC on Collaboration: JIT Ecosystem Development

TSMC on Collaboration: JIT Ecosystem Development
by Paul McLellan on 03-27-2013 at 2:02 pm

Cliff Hou of TSMC gave the keynote today at SNUG on Collaborate to Innovate: a Foundry’s Perspective. Starting around 45nm the way that a foundry has to work with its ecosystem fundamentally changed. Up until then, each process generation was similar enough to the previous one, apart obviously from size, that it could be … Read More


Apple and Google Turn Towards Enterprise

Apple and Google Turn Towards Enterprise
by Ed McKernan on 03-27-2013 at 9:00 am

As a calm settles over the mobile market, post the overhyped Samsung Galaxy S4 launch, many analysts are at a loss as to describe a way forward with Apple that is understandable and positive. The dozens of reports that focus on the summer launches of the iPhone 5S and cheap iphone miss the side of the barn on the true strategy being put… Read More


Will 14nm Yield?

Will 14nm Yield?
by Daniel Nenni on 03-26-2013 at 9:00 pm

If I had a nickel for every time I heard the term “FinFET” at the 2013 SNUG (Synopsys User Group) Conference I could buy a dozen Venti Carmel Frappuccinos at Starbucks (my daughter’s favorite treat). In the keynote, Aart de Geus said FinFET 14 times and posed the question: Will FinFETs Yield at 14nm? So that was my mission, ask everybody… Read More


In compliance we trust, for integration we verify

In compliance we trust, for integration we verify
by Don Dingee on 03-26-2013 at 8:10 pm

So, you dropped that piece of complex IP you just licensed into an SoC design, and now it is time to fire up the simulator. How do you verify that it actually works in your design? If you didn’t get verification IP (VIP) with the functional IP, it might be a really long day.

Compliance checking something like a PCIe interface block is a … Read More