I arrived to a sunny San Francisco this afternoon, checked into my hotel then visited Moscone Center to pick up my Independent Media credentials. On the walk over I passed by Yerba Buena Gardens.… Read More



Virtual Platforms plus FPGA Prototyping, the Perfect Mix
There are two main approaches to building a substructure on which to do software development and architectural analysis before a chip is ready: virtual platforms and FPGA prototyping.
Virtual platforms have the advantage that they are fairly quick to produce and can be created a long time before RTL design for the various blocks… Read More
Understanding and Designing For Variation in GLOBALFOUNDRIES 28nm
On Wednesday there is a User Track Poster Session that examines the design impact of process variation in GLOBALFOUNDRIES 28nm technology. For those of you who are wondering what process variation looks like at 20nm take this 28nm example and multiply it by one hundred (slight exaggeration, maybe).
Variation effects have a significant… Read More
Industry Standard FinFET versus Intel Tri-Gate!
Ever since the “Intel Reinvents Transistors Using New 3-D Structure” PR campaign I have been at odds with them. As technologists, I have nothing but respect for Intel. The Intel PR department, however, quite frankly, is evil. Correct me if I’m wrong here but Intel did not “reinvent” the transistor. Nor did they come up with the name… Read More
Spyglass by Atrenta
I’ve been helping get booths set up at DAC in Moscone for the last couple of days. Atrenta’s booth shows their new branding that I talked about last week. Now you can see what they are doing in this picture of their booth. As I sort of guessed they are leading with the Spyglass name. The booth says everywhere “Spyglass… Read More
Did You Know Venus is Transiting the Sun During DAC 2012?
On Tuesday, June 5th, starting at 3:05 pm in San Francisco, the planet Venus will cross, or transit, the sun. If you stop by Ciranova’s DAC booth #1608 anytime on Monday or Tuesday, they will give you a free pair of solar viewing glasses that will let you view the transit safely.
According to the NASA website, Transits of Venus… Read More
DAC: Advice for Out-of-towners
I blogged several times over the last few weeks about places in San Francisco other than DAC at the Moscone Center. Since they are now spread all over the site it is not so easy to find them. So here they are again all in one place.
Places to eat and drink near the Moscone center
GLOBALFOUNDRIES Reference Flows at DAC 2012!
As I mentioned in my blog GlobalFoundries Update 2012, the GFI people are on the move at DAC 2012. Here is a little more detail on the up and coming AMS and Digital reference flows for 28nm and 20nm.… Read More
DAC: there’s an App for that
Bill Deegan has produced a new version of his iPhone DAC app for this years conference. You can download it for free from the Apple App Store here. It is basically a mobile version of the DAC conference brochure with schedules for the various events (which it can add to your calendar if you decide you are interested) and the floorplan… Read More
EDAC emerging companies, Hogan evening
This evening at Silicon Valley Bank was the first of what is planned to be a series about EDA startups. Apparently the seed of the idea was planted by Dan Nenni with Jim Hogan and Steve Pollock and the EDAC Emerging Companies committee ran with it.… Read More
Flynn Was Right: How a 2003 Warning Foretold Today’s Architectural Pivot