800x100 Efficient and Robust Memory Verification (2)

First low-power webinar: Ultra-low-power Methodology

First low-power webinar: Ultra-low-power Methodology
by Paul McLellan on 07-13-2011 at 12:10 pm

The first of the low power webinars is coming up on July 19th at 11am Pacific time. The webinar will be conducted by Preeti Gupta, Sr. Technical Marketing Manager at Apache Design Solutions. Preeti has 10 years of experience in the exciting world of CMOS power. She has a Masters in Electrical Engineering from Indian Institute of technology,… Read More


And it’s Intel at 22nm but wait, Samsung slips ahead by 2nm…

And it’s Intel at 22nm but wait, Samsung slips ahead by 2nm…
by Paul McLellan on 07-12-2011 at 12:46 pm

Another announcement of interest, given all the discussion of Intel’s 22nm process around here, is that Samsung (along with ARM, Cadence and Synopsys) announced that they have taped out a 20nm ARM test-chip (using a Synopsys/Cadence flow).

An interesting wrinkle is that at 32nm and 28nm they used a gate-first process but… Read More


Cadence aquires Azuro

Cadence aquires Azuro
by Paul McLellan on 07-12-2011 at 12:20 pm

Cadence this morning announced that it has acquired Azuro. Azuro has become a leader in building the clock trees for high performance SoCs. A good rule of thumb is that the clock consumes 30% of the power in an SoC so optimizing it is really important. Terms were not disclosed.

The clock trees involve clock gating which can reduce clock… Read More


On-chip supercomputers, AMBA 4, Coore’s law

On-chip supercomputers, AMBA 4, Coore’s law
by Paul McLellan on 07-11-2011 at 12:45 pm

At DAC I talked with Mike Dimelow of ARM about the latest upcoming revision to the AMBA bus standards, AMBA 4. The standard gets an upgrade about every 5 years. The original ARM in 1992 ran at 10MIPS with a 20MHz clock. The first AMBA bus was a standard way to link the processor to memories (through the ARM system bus ASB) and to peripherals… Read More


Design for test at RTL

Design for test at RTL
by Paul McLellan on 07-10-2011 at 3:09 pm

Design for test (DFT) imposes various restrictions on the design so that the test automation tools (automatic test pattern approaches such as scan, as well as built-in self-test approaches) will subsequently be able to generate the test program. For example, different test approaches impose constraints on clock generation… Read More


Intel Twisting ARM?

Intel Twisting ARM?
by Daniel Nenni on 07-10-2011 at 11:00 am

Intel’s new Tri-Gate technology is causing quite a stir on the stock chat groups. Some have even said if Intel uses its Tri-Gate technology on only Intel processors ARM will be in deep deep trouble. These guys are “Intel Longs” of course and they are battling “Intel Shorts” with cut and paste news clips.

“ARM is in trouble & this
Read More


Low Power Webinar Series

Low Power Webinar Series
by Paul McLellan on 07-08-2011 at 4:57 pm

At DAC 2011 in San Diego, Apache gave many product presentations. Of course not everyone could make DAC or could make all the presentations in which they were interested. So from mid-July until mid-August these presentations will be given as webinars. Details, and links for registration, are here on the Apache website.

The seminars… Read More


Once Upon A Time… ASIC designers developed IC for Supercomputer in the 80’s

Once Upon A Time… ASIC designers developed IC for Supercomputer in the 80’s
by Eric Esteve on 07-07-2011 at 10:41 am

During last week-end, I had the good surprise to meet with one of my oldest friend, Eric, who remind me the old time, when we were working together as ASIC designers for… a Supercomputer project.

In France, in a French company (Thomson CSF) active in the military segment and being able to spend which was at that time a fortune ($25M) Read More


TSMC Financial Status Plus OIP Update!

TSMC Financial Status Plus OIP Update!
by Daniel Nenni on 07-05-2011 at 8:00 am

Interesting notes from my most recent Taiwan trip: Taiwan unemployment is at a record low. Scooters once again fill the streets of Hsinchu! TSMC will be passing out record bonuses to a record amount of people. TSMC Fab expansions are ahead of schedule. The new Fab 15 in Taichung went up amazingly fast with equipment moving in later… Read More


Two More Transistor-Level Companies at DAC

Two More Transistor-Level Companies at DAC
by Daniel Payne on 07-02-2011 at 8:38 pm

In my rush on Wednesday at DAC I had almost over-looked the last two companies I talked with: Invarian and AnaGlobe. These last two I had hand-written notes on paper, so I just got to the bottom of my inbox tonight to write up the final trip reports.

Invarian
Jens Andersen and Vladimir Schellbach gave me an overview of tools that perform… Read More