800x100 Efficient and Robust Memory Verification (2)

Speeding Verification of FPGA Prototype Boards

Speeding Verification of FPGA Prototype Boards
by Paul McLellan on 08-09-2011 at 5:42 pm

It is no secret that SoC designs continue to increase in complexity and time-to-market windows are shrinking. While there is room for debate on just how big a fraction of SoC design effort goes on verification, there is no debating that it is a large part of the total. Simulation is increasingly too slow, especially when software … Read More


Smartphones shipments, Sky is the limit…

Smartphones shipments, Sky is the limit…
by Eric Esteve on 08-08-2011 at 8:50 am

…or a global recession, but that’s not the purpose of this blog. As everybody knows, Apple is designing and selling smartphones, only. Does it mean that only smartphones are generating profit in the mobile industry? As we have seen recently in Semiwiki, Apple makes 2/3 of profit of entire mobile industry.

Let’s have a look (below)… Read More


Samsung to Acquire AMD?

Samsung to Acquire AMD?
by Daniel Nenni on 08-07-2011 at 4:00 pm


Don’t get me wrong, I’m a big fan of AMD, I buy AMD based products whenever possible to prevent an innovation stifling Intel monopoly. Unfortunately Silicon Valley coffee house conversations continue to paint a bleak picture for AMD, even with a recent stock surge on better than expected revenue guidance for the rest of 2011. I’m… Read More


Sentinel-PSI Webinar

Sentinel-PSI Webinar
by Paul McLellan on 08-07-2011 at 3:28 pm

The last of the current series of webinars is on Sentinel-PSI,IC-Package, Power and Signal Integrity Solution. It will be at 11am Pacific time on Thursday 11th August. It will be conducted by Dr. Tao Su, product manager of the Sentinel products. Dr. Su has many years of experience in the EDA industry and is specialized in power integrity… Read More


Apple Roadmaps Intel to 14nm

Apple Roadmaps Intel to 14nm
by Ed McKernan on 08-07-2011 at 1:11 pm

Intel will not win the tablet market with any of the various Atom chips rolling out at 32nm, 22nm and even 14nm. They are too late to a game that Apple owns 90% of today and will so in the future. All of these ultra low power atom versions are like the Saturn test rocket developments that preceded the Apollo 11 Moon Landing. They are necessary… Read More


Yalta in EDA: Cadence stronger in VIP territory…

Yalta in EDA: Cadence stronger in VIP territory…
by Eric Esteve on 08-07-2011 at 5:42 am

…when Synopsys is getting the lion’s share in Interface IP. In Q2 2010, there was two major acquisitions in EDA world: Synopsys has bought Virage Logic (for more than $300M) when Cadence bought Denali for an equivalent amount. Synopsys bought a 100% IP focused company, when Cadence bought a strongly VIP focused company. Does it … Read More


August 11th – Hands-on Workshop with Calibre: DRC, LVS, DFM, xRC, ERC

August 11th – Hands-on Workshop with Calibre: DRC, LVS, DFM, xRC, ERC
by Daniel Payne on 08-06-2011 at 9:29 pm

I’ve blogged about the Calibre family of IC design tools before:

Smart Fill replaced Dummy Fill Approach in a DFM Flow
DRC Wiki
Graphical DRC vs Text-based DRC
Getting Real time Calibre DRC Results with Custom IC Editing
Transistor-level Electrical Rule Checking
Who Needs a 3D Field Solver for IC Design?
Prevention is BetterRead More


SNUG outside Silicon Valley

SNUG outside Silicon Valley
by Paul McLellan on 08-05-2011 at 6:04 pm

SNUG in Silicon Valley was in March so either you were there or you’ve missed it. But it is the summer (and fall) of SNUG in the rest of the world:

SNUG China (in Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen) on August 22nd-30th
SNUG Singapore on August 23rd
SNUG Taiwan (in Hsinchu) on August 25-26th
SNUG Japan (in Tokyo) on September 7th
SNUG … Read More


Assertion-based Formal Verification

Assertion-based Formal Verification
by Paul McLellan on 08-05-2011 at 5:34 pm

Formal verification has grown in importance as designs have grown and it has become necessary to face up to the theoretical impossibility of using simulation to get complete coverage along with the practical impossibility of simulating enough to even get close.

There are a number of solvers for what is called satisfiability (SAT)… Read More