Architecture-level Power Modeling Methodology at Samsung

Architecture-level Power Modeling Methodology at Samsung
by Daniel Payne on 10-02-2013 at 10:58 am

At DAC this year there was a presentation from Samsung titled, “Profile-based Architecture Power Modeling Methodology for AP/SoC Product”. I’ve been using Samsung Smart Phones for the past four generations, so was very curious about how they have managed to improve the average battery life from less than… Read More


Aart: Technomic Push-Pull

Aart: Technomic Push-Pull
by Paul McLellan on 06-26-2013 at 11:00 pm

Aart de Geus gave one of the visionary look to the next 50 years of EDA as a warmup to Stephen Wu’s keynote. EDA is enabling the greatest push-pull ever, part of an exponential change on a scale never before seen.

Technologies seem to go through a 50 year technical push phase (driven by improving the technology) followed by a 50… Read More


Kathryn Kranen: The Problem with EDA is…

Kathryn Kranen: The Problem with EDA is…
by Paul McLellan on 06-25-2013 at 5:35 pm

Kathryn Kranen, CEO of Jasper Design Automation, got to give her view of the future of EDA on the Thursday of DAC. For many years she has been on the EDAC board and is currently chair. When she first was on the board she talked to many of the stakeholders in the EDA ecosystem: EDA companies, IP companies, semiconductor companies, academics,… Read More


Pat Pistilli: the first cell library, the first computer-printed label and more

Pat Pistilli: the first cell library, the first computer-printed label and more
by Paul McLellan on 06-22-2013 at 1:45 pm

At the DAC 50th anniversary banquet, Pat Pistilli won the award for most tenacious attendee, having been to all 50 DACs. Well, and for creating DAC and sustaining it. He was general chair for the first DAC (not yet called DAC) and, of course, would eventually form MP Associates with his wife Marie, which still runs DAC today. In 2010… Read More


DAC by the Numbers

DAC by the Numbers
by Paul McLellan on 06-20-2013 at 12:03 pm

The attendance numbers for DAC are out. Unless you have been living under a stone you know that DAC was in Austin Texas a couple of weeks ago. Attendance was:

  • full conference passes: 1589
  • exhibits-only passes: 2364
  • booth staff: 1998

The registration is slightly lower than last year when DAC was in San Francisco (as it will be again … Read More


Hardware Assisted Verification

Hardware Assisted Verification
by Paul McLellan on 06-10-2013 at 9:00 pm

On the Tuesday of DAC I moderated a panel session on Hardware Assisted Verification in 10 Years: More Need, More Speed. Although this topic obviously could include FPGA-based prototyping, in fact we spent pretty much the whole time talking about emulation. Gary Smith, on Sunday night, actually set up things by pointing out that… Read More


SoC Sign-off, Real Intent at DAC

SoC Sign-off, Real Intent at DAC
by Daniel Payne on 06-09-2013 at 8:10 pm

Monday morning at DAC I met with Real Intent to get an update on their SoC sign-off tools:

  • Dr. Prakash Narain, President and CEO
  • Graham Bell, Sr. Dir. Mktg.

Years ago Prakash was at IBM the only two years that they attended DAC, in an attempt to offer their internal EDA tools to the EDA marketplace. Graham worked at Nassda marketing the… Read More


DAC IP Workshop: Are You Ready For Quality Control?

DAC IP Workshop: Are You Ready For Quality Control?
by Paul McLellan on 06-07-2013 at 3:08 am

On Sunday I attended an IP workshop which was presented by TSMC, Atrenta, Sonics and IPextreme. It turns out that the leitmotiv of the afternoon was SpyGlass.

Dan Kochpatcharin of TSMC was first up and gave a little bit of history of the company. They built up their capacity over the years, as I’ve written about before, and last… Read More


ARM: AMBA 5, Cortex-A12, Mali, video, POP…

ARM: AMBA 5, Cortex-A12, Mali, video, POP…
by Paul McLellan on 06-06-2013 at 4:39 pm

ARM announced several new products at DAC in a number of different spaces. In addition I got invited to a briefing with Simon Segars, 30 days from when he takes over as CEO of ARM. I asked Simon if he expected to make any major changes and he basically said ‘no’. ARM’s basic strategy in both mobile and now enterprise… Read More


DAC: Tempus Lunch

DAC: Tempus Lunch
by Paul McLellan on 06-06-2013 at 4:03 pm

I had time for lunch on Monday. That is to say, there was a Cadence panel session about Has Timing Signoff Innovation has become and Oxymoron? What Happened and How Do We Fix It?

The moderator was Brian Fuller, lately of EE Times but now Editor-in-Chief at Cadence (I’m not sure quite what it means either). On the panel were Dipesh… Read More