Samsung, Synopsys and Qualcomm at DAC

Samsung, Synopsys and Qualcomm at DAC
by Daniel Payne on 08-24-2017 at 12:00 pm

I’m a user of many Samsung products as my family has Samsung Galaxy smart phones and my MacBook Pro uses Samsung SSD for storage, so at DAC I attended a breakfast panel with presenters from Samsung, Synopsys and Qualcomm. This was the second day of DAC and they served us breakfast, and with the big names on the panel the room was… Read More


Emulation makes the What to See List

Emulation makes the What to See List
by Daniel Payne on 07-25-2017 at 12:00 pm

The analysts at Gary Smith EDA produce an annual What To See List for DAC and I quickly noticed that all three major EDA vendors were included on the list for the specific category of emulation. The big problem that emulation addresses is the ability to run in hardware an early version of your SoC so that software developers can get access… Read More


HLS update from Mentor about Catapult

HLS update from Mentor about Catapult
by Daniel Payne on 07-17-2017 at 12:00 pm

I recall back in the late 1980’s when logic synthesis tools were first commercialized, at first they could read in a gate-level netlist from one foundry then output an optimized netlist back into the same foundry. Next, they could migrate your gate-level netlist from Vendor A over to Vendor B, giving design companies some… Read More


Designing at 7nm with ARM, MediaTek, Renesas, Cadence and TSMC

Designing at 7nm with ARM, MediaTek, Renesas, Cadence and TSMC
by Daniel Payne on 07-11-2017 at 12:00 pm

The bleeding edge of SoC design was on full display last month at DAC in Austin as I listened to a panel session where members talked about their specific experiences so far designing with the 7nm process node. Jim Hogan was the moderator and the panel quickly got into what their respective companies are doing with 7nm technology already.… Read More


ADAS and Vision from Cadence

ADAS and Vision from Cadence
by Daniel Payne on 07-05-2017 at 12:00 pm

A huge theme at #54DAC this year was all things automotive and in particular the phrase ADAS (Assisted Driver Assistance Systems), so I followed up with Raja Tabet a corporate VP of emerging technology at Cadence. We met on Monday in a press room where I quickly learned that Cadence has been serving the automotive industry for the … Read More


DAC 2017: How Oracle does Reliability Simulation when designing SPARC

DAC 2017: How Oracle does Reliability Simulation when designing SPARC
by Daniel Payne on 06-27-2017 at 12:00 pm

Last week at #54DAC there was a talk by Michael Yu from the CAD group of Oracle who discussed how they designed their latest generation of SPARC chips, with an emphasis on the reliability simulations. The three features of the latest SPARC family of chips are:

  • Security in silicon
  • SQL in silicon
  • World’s fastest microprocessor
Read More

New Concepts in Semiconductor IP Lifecycle Management

New Concepts in Semiconductor IP Lifecycle Management
by Daniel Nenni on 06-27-2017 at 7:00 am

Right before #54DAC I participated in a webinar with Methodics on “New Concepts in Semiconductor IP Lifecycle Management” with Simon Butler, CEO of Methodics, Michael Munsey, Vice President of Business Development and Strategic Accounts, and Vishal Moondhra, Vice President of Applications. Thewebinar introducedRead More


The Real Reason Siemens Bought Mentor!

The Real Reason Siemens Bought Mentor!
by Daniel Nenni on 06-26-2017 at 7:00 am

The Siemens purchase of Mentor last year for a premium $4.5B was a bit of a shock to me as I have stated before. I had an inkling a Mentor acquisition was coming but Siemens was not on my list of suitors. The reviews have been mixed and the Siemens commitment to the IC EDA market has been questioned so I spent some time on this at #54DAC.

First… Read More


First Thoughts from #54DAC!

First Thoughts from #54DAC!
by Daniel Nenni on 06-24-2017 at 7:00 am

This was my 34[SUP]th[/SUP] DAC, yes 34. It is a shame blogging did not exist back then because I would have liked to have read thoughts from my eager young mind, or maybe not. The first thing that struck me this year is the great content. Before DAC I review the sessions I want to see and this year there were many more than I had time for. … Read More


TSMC @ #54DAC!

TSMC @ #54DAC!
by Daniel Nenni on 06-16-2017 at 9:00 am

TSMC has been an ardent supporter of DAC for the last 18 years which has brought in the other foundries because, as the industry leader, wherever TSMC goes the other foundries naturally follow. The exception of course is Intel Custom Foundry because they march to the beat of a different drummer, if you know what I mean. The CoFluent… Read More