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How ST-Ericsson Improved DFM Closure using SmartFill

How ST-Ericsson Improved DFM Closure using SmartFill
by Daniel Payne on 10-07-2011 at 2:38 pm

DFM closure is a growing issue these days even at the 45nm node, and IC designers at ST-Ericsson have learned that transitioning from dummy fill to SmartFill has saved them time and improved their DFM score.

The SOC
ST-Ericsson designed an SOC for mobile platforms called the U8500 and their foundry choice was a 45nm node at STMicroelectronicsRead More


Jasper User Group Meeting

Jasper User Group Meeting
by Paul McLellan on 10-07-2011 at 11:59 am

Jasper’s Annual User Group Meeting is on November 9th and 10th, in Cupertino California. It will feature users from all over the world sharing the best practices in verification. If you are a user of Jasper’s products then you should definitely plan to attend. This year there is so much good material that the meeting… Read More


Testing, testing… 3D ICs

Testing, testing… 3D ICs
by Beth Martin on 10-06-2011 at 7:01 pm

3D ICs complicate silicon testing, but solutions exist now to many of the key challenges. – by Stephen Pateras

The next phase of semiconductor designs will see the adoption of 3D IC packages, vertical stacks of multiple bare die connected directly though the silicon. Through-silicon vias (TSV) result in shorter and thinner… Read More


Circuit Simulation and Ultra low-power IC Design at Toumaz

Circuit Simulation and Ultra low-power IC Design at Toumaz
by Daniel Payne on 10-06-2011 at 4:31 pm

I read about how Toumaz used the Analog Fast SPICE (AFS) tool from BDA and it sounded interesting so I setup a Skype call with Alan Wong in the UK last month to find out how they design their ultra low-power IC chips.


Interview

Q: Tell me about your IC design background.
A: I’ve been at Toumaz almost 8 years now and before that at Sony… Read More


SuperSpeed USB finally take off! Synopsys claim over 40 USB 3.0 IP sales…

SuperSpeed USB finally take off! Synopsys claim over 40 USB 3.0 IP sales…
by Eric Esteve on 10-06-2011 at 9:06 am

SuperSpeed USB specification was released in November 2008! Even if we can see USB 3.0 powered peripherals shipping now, essentially external HDD, connected to PC equipped with Host Bus Adaptors (as PC chipset from Intel or AMD were not supporting USB 3.0), it will take up to the second quarter of 2012 before PC will be shipped withRead More


SoC Realization: Let’s Get Physical!

SoC Realization: Let’s Get Physical!
by Paul McLellan on 10-05-2011 at 1:41 pm

If you ask design groups what the biggest challenges are to getting a chip out on time, then the top two are usually verification, and getting closure after physical design. Not just timing closure, but power and area. One of the big drivers of this is predicting and avoiding excessive routing congestion, which is something that … Read More


Amazon’s Kindle Fire Spells Trouble for nVidia, Qualcomm and Intel

Amazon’s Kindle Fire Spells Trouble for nVidia, Qualcomm and Intel
by Ed McKernan on 10-05-2011 at 11:50 am

With the introduction of the Kindle Fire, it is now guaranteed that Amazon has the formula down for building the new, high volume mobile platform based on sub $9 processors. In measured fashion, Amazon has moved down Moore’s Law curve from the initial 90nm Freescale processor to what is reported to be TI’s OMAP 4 in order to add the … Read More


AMS Verification: Speed versus Accuracy

AMS Verification: Speed versus Accuracy
by Daniel Nenni on 10-03-2011 at 9:16 pm

I spent Thursday Sept. 22 at the first nanometer Circuit Verification Forum, held at TechMart in Santa Clara. Hosted by Berkeley Design Automation (BDA), the forum was attended by 100+ people, with circuit designers dominating. I spoke with many attendees. They were seeking solutions to the hugely challenging problems they … Read More


Verdi: there’s an App for that

Verdi: there’s an App for that
by Paul McLellan on 10-03-2011 at 5:58 am

Verdi is very widely used in verification groups, perhaps the industry’s most popular debug system. But users have not been able to access the Verdi environment to write their own scripts or applications. This means either that they are prevented from doing something that they want to do, or else the barrier for doing it is… Read More


Making Money With Cramer? Don’t Count on it!

Making Money With Cramer? Don’t Count on it!
by Daniel Nenni on 10-02-2011 at 11:16 pm

Investing with Cramer is a crap shoot. By Cramer, I mean the Mad Money TV show, and Action Alerts PLUS from thestreet.com. Cramer is certainly a smart guy and knows his stuff, but don’t think following his investment strategy is necessarily a winner. He constantly maintains that you can beat the averages by picking individualRead More