Afraid of mesh-based clock topologies? You should be

Afraid of mesh-based clock topologies? You should be
by Daniel Payne on 03-18-2024 at 10:00 am

mesh-based clock topology

Digital logic chips synchronize all logic operations by using a clock signal connected to flip-flops or latches, and the clock is distributed across the entire chip. The ultimate goal is to have a clock signal that arrives at the exact same moment in time at all clocked elements. If the clock arrives too early or too late from the PLL… Read More


White Paper: A Closer Look at Aging on Clock Networks

White Paper: A Closer Look at Aging on Clock Networks
by Tom Simon on 01-02-2022 at 6:00 am

Transistor Aging

We all know that designers work hard to reach design closure on SOC designs. However, what gets less attention from consumers is the effort that goes into ensuring that these chips will be fully operational and meeting timing specs over their projected lifetime. Of course, this is less important for chips used in devices with projected… Read More


Unexpected Help for Simulation from Machine Learning

Unexpected Help for Simulation from Machine Learning
by Tom Simon on 02-13-2018 at 12:00 pm

I attend a lot of events on machine learning and write about it regularly. However, I learned some exciting new information about machine learning in a very surprising place recently. Every year for the last few years I have attended the HSPICE SIG dinner hosted by Synopsys in Santa Clara. This event starts with a vendor fair featuring… Read More


Multi-Level Debugging Made Easy for SoC Development

Multi-Level Debugging Made Easy for SoC Development
by Pawan Fangaria on 03-01-2016 at 7:00 am

An SoC can have a collection of multiple blocks and IPs from different sources integrated together along with several other analog and digital components within a native environment. The IPs can be at different levels of abstractions; their RTL descriptions can be in different languages such as Verilog, VHDL, or SystemVerilog.… Read More


Maybe Clockless Chip Design’s Time has Come

Maybe Clockless Chip Design’s Time has Come
by Tom Simon on 11-16-2015 at 4:00 pm

There have always been novel technologies vying to compete with conventional design practices. It is hit or miss on the success of these ideas. In the 90’s I recall speaking to someone who was convinced that they could effectively build computers based on multilevel logic. This, as we know did not pan out. But there have been many … Read More


Expert Tool to Easily Debug RTL and Reuse in SoCs

Expert Tool to Easily Debug RTL and Reuse in SoCs
by Pawan Fangaria on 12-16-2014 at 7:00 pm

SoC design these days has become a complex and tricky phenomenon involving integration of multiple IPs and legacy RTL code which could be in different languages, sourced from various third parties across the globe. Understanding and reusing RTL code is imperative in SoC integration which needs capable tools that can accommodate… Read More


CEO Interview: Jason Xing of ICScape Inc.

CEO Interview: Jason Xing of ICScape Inc.
by Randy Smith on 05-19-2013 at 12:00 am

I recently had the opportunity to interview Jason Xing, Ph.D., CEO and President of ICScape, Inc. Below is a subset of the nearly two hour long interview.

How did you first become involved in EDA?
My EDA career started in the mid-90s when I started working on my PhD thesis at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign. My thesis… Read More