Efficient collaboration is essential to meeting tight chip design schedules. In analog and mixed signal (AMS) design, collaboration has many facets. Design tools are usually specific to roles, and handoffs are numerous, especially when moving a design to a foundry. … Read More
Today’s profound statement: “don’t fall in love with your tools, figure out the biz process change first.” Mixed-signal SoC designers are having ample challenges with their design process and are in need of design management, but don’t want another tool to do it.… Read More
Enterprise design management can be summed up in one word: collaboration. Intellectual property (IP) reuse and the success of distributed system-on-chip (SoC) design efforts depend strongly on how well designers can collaborate. As time-to-market windows have shortened, the challenges around design collaboration have… Read More
In my initial look at ClioSoft’s design management system created from the ground up for the semiconductor industry, I made the opening case for managing and reusing IP across an ASIC design organization. Let’s for a moment say we agree on the need for an enterprise software package to do design management… Read More
Make-versus-buy inadequately describes what we do now in electronic systems design. We are on a continuum of design IP acquisition and use decisions, often with a portfolio of active projects and future projects depending on the outcome. Properly managing IP means adopting a build-borrow-buy mindset and tools capable of handling… Read More
I love getting a good deal, and free is always compelling, so how about attending DAC in Austin for free this year? Sound too good to be true? Thanks to the generosity of three EDA companies – ATop Tech, ClioSoft and OneSpin, now you can can attend parts of DAC for free by registering here. This is now the 8th year that the I LOVE DAC… Read More
Semiconductor startups are becoming rather rare in Silicon Valley, otherwise known as the cradle of technology innovation. In an era where social media and cloud-based software startups are sprouting in every nook and corner of the Valley, it is extremely difficult to get venture capital funding for semiconductor startups,… Read More
In the wake of increased global competitiveness and shorter time-to-market windows, there has been a renewed focus by design management on the underlying data management infrastructure of the design teams. An increasing number of systems-on-chip (SoCs) now have some type of analog, digital and/or RF modules, making it imperative… Read More
System-on-chips (SoCs) are now everywhere, whether they are processors, microcontrollers or FPGAs, and what matters more these days is how quickly these large and complex chips adapt to the specific needs of the OEM application or the “system.” So time-to-market window is shrinking, and conversely, the use of … Read More
SoC design these days is largely about assembling externally developed semiconductor IP with a small amount of differentiated content. Only companies who have to adopt new processes instantly develop a lot of their own IP. It makes more sense to license it. Partially because there is not a lot of differentiation in standards-based… Read More
