How to Bring Coherency to the World of Cache Memory

How to Bring Coherency to the World of Cache Memory
by Tom Simon on 07-11-2016 at 12:00 pm

As the size and complexity of System On Chip design has rapidly expanded in recent years, the need to use cache memory to improve throughput and reduce power has increased as well. Originally, cache memory was used to prevent what was then a single processor from making expensive off chip access for program or data memory. With the… Read More


Arteris Unveils Solution for Heterogeneous Cache Coherent SOC’s

Arteris Unveils Solution for Heterogeneous Cache Coherent SOC’s
by Tom Simon on 05-30-2016 at 12:00 pm

Designing SOC’s for markets like automotive and mobile electronics requires taking advantage of every opportunity for optimization. One way to do this is through building a cache coherent system to boost speed and reduce power. Recently, NXP decided to go about this on their automotive MCU based SOC’s by using Arteris’ just-announced… Read More


Cache Coherent Systems Get a Boost from New Technology

Cache Coherent Systems Get a Boost from New Technology
by Tom Simon on 05-20-2016 at 12:00 pm

The speed and power penalties for accessing system RAM affect everything from artificial intelligence platforms to IoT sensor nodes. There is a huge power and performance overhead when the various IP blocks in an SOC need to go to DRAM. Memory caches have become essential to SOC design to reduce these adverse effects. However, … Read More


Optimizing Quality-of-Service in a Network-on-Chip Architecture

Optimizing Quality-of-Service in a Network-on-Chip Architecture
by Tom Dillinger on 10-13-2015 at 12:00 pm

The Linley Group is well-known for their esteemed Microprocessor Report publication, now in its 28th year. Accompanying their repertoire of industry reports, TLG also sponsors regular conferences, highlighting the latest developments in processor architecture and implementation.

One of the highlights of the conference… Read More


Nine Cost Considerations to Keep IP Relevant

Nine Cost Considerations to Keep IP Relevant
by Pawan Fangaria on 09-27-2015 at 12:00 pm

It’s about 15 years the concept of IP development and its usage took place. In the recent past the semiconductor industry witnessed start of a large number of IP companies across the globe. However, according to Gary Smith’s presentation before the start of 52[SUP]nd[/SUP] DAC, IP business is expected to remain stagnant for next… Read More


SSD Storage Chips: Basic Interconnect Considerations

SSD Storage Chips: Basic Interconnect Considerations
by Majeed Ahmad on 07-31-2015 at 4:00 pm

The joint development of 3D XPoint memory technology from Intel and Micron has once more brought the spotlight on data centers and chips for solid-state drives (SSDs). The two semiconductor industry giants claim that 3D XPoint memory is1,000 times faster than NAND Flash: the underlying memory content for SSDs. Such developments… Read More


Is Interconnect Ready for the Post-mobile SoCs?

Is Interconnect Ready for the Post-mobile SoCs?
by Majeed Ahmad on 06-28-2015 at 2:00 pm

The interconnect technology is one of the unsung heroes of the system-on-chip (SoC) revolution. It’s the on-chip networking fabric that is used to link various IP cores on an SoC floorplan. The technology facilitates links between multiple processors, on-chip memories, hardware accelerators and more. In other words,… Read More


Automating Timing Closure Using Interconnect IP, Physical Information

Automating Timing Closure Using Interconnect IP, Physical Information
by Majeed Ahmad on 04-29-2015 at 1:00 pm

Timing closure is a “tortoise” for some system-on-chip (SoC) designers just the way many digital guys call RF design a “black art”. Chip designers often tell horror stories of doing up to 20 back-end physical synthesis place & route (SP&R) iterations with each iteration taking a week or more. “Timing closure”, a largely… Read More


Rockchip Bets on Arteris FlexNoC Interconnect IP to Leapfrog SoC Design

Rockchip Bets on Arteris FlexNoC Interconnect IP to Leapfrog SoC Design
by Majeed Ahmad on 04-19-2015 at 9:00 am

China was a virgin territory for Arteris Inc. before July 19, 2012 when Fuzhou Rockchip Electronics announced that it has licensed the Arteris FlexNoC network-on-chip (NoC)-based interconnect IP technology for its multicore SoCs for budget Android tablets. Rockchip mostly targets the tablet and set-top box (STB) markets … Read More


SoCs in New Context Look beyond PPA

SoCs in New Context Look beyond PPA
by Pawan Fangaria on 03-21-2015 at 7:00 am

If we look back in the last century, performance and area were two main criteria for semiconductor chip design. All design tools and flows were concentrated towards optimizing those two aspects. As a result, density of chips started increasing and power became a critical factor. Now, Power, Performance and Area (PPA) are looked… Read More