Electronic System Level: Gary Smith

Electronic System Level: Gary Smith
by Paul McLellan on 08-12-2013 at 5:07 pm

Gary Smith has been talking about how the electronic system level (ESL) is where the future of EDA lies as design teams move up to higher levels encompassing IP blocks, high level synthesis, software development using virtual platforms and so on. At DAC this year in Austin he talked about how the fact that EDA controls the modeling… 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


DAC Keynotes: 5 This Year

DAC Keynotes: 5 This Year
by Paul McLellan on 05-01-2013 at 2:38 pm

DAC is in Austin this year, as I’m sure you know, and DAC has keynotes by CEOs of two Austin-based companies Freescale Semiconductor and National Instrument. Two more keynotes (one split into two) are focused on mobile, which has become the major driver of semiconductor today. A fifth keynote, including presentation of … Read More


When installing a sink, it’s a lot faster to buy a saw

When installing a sink, it’s a lot faster to buy a saw
by Don Dingee on 04-25-2013 at 8:10 pm

Mentor’s announcement from Design West this week pretty much signals the end of standalone ESL tools, in favor of more useful stuff. They have pulled the pieces of their Sourcery CodeBench environment along with their embedded Linux offering and their Vista virtual prototyping platform into a native embedded software development… Read More


Mentor’s New Embedded Strategy

Mentor’s New Embedded Strategy
by Paul McLellan on 04-22-2013 at 2:01 am

If there is a trend I can detect in verification in 2013, it is taking verification environments and making the user interface, scripts, and tools work uniformly across the whole spectrum of possible verification “substrates” from virtual platforms, FPGA boards, emulation, actual chips, RTL simulation and so … Read More


Microprocessor Test and Verification 2012

Microprocessor Test and Verification 2012
by Paul McLellan on 12-05-2012 at 5:43 pm

Next week December 10-12th is the Microprocessor Test and Verification (MTV 2012) which is in Austin Texas (as DAC will be next year, of course). After lunch on Monday there is a panel session on the effectiveness of virtual prototyping entitled When simulation suffices, who needs FPGA or emulation? Bill Neifert, the CTO of Carbon… Read More


Virtual Platforms plus FPGA Prototyping, the Perfect Mix

Virtual Platforms plus FPGA Prototyping, the Perfect Mix
by Paul McLellan on 06-03-2012 at 8:59 pm

There are two main approaches to building a substructure on which to do software development and architectural analysis before a chip is ready: virtual platforms and FPGA prototyping.

Virtual platforms have the advantage that they are fairly quick to produce and can be created a long time before RTL design for the various blocks… Read More


DVCon: Hardware/software Co-design from a Software Perspective

DVCon: Hardware/software Co-design from a Software Perspective
by Paul McLellan on 02-09-2012 at 4:56 am

The EDAC Emerging Companies Comittee (would that be the EDACECC?) is organizing a free panel session one evening at DVCon. It is Monday February 27th from 6pm to 8.30pm. I don’t yet have a room but it will be at the DoubleTree Hotel where DVCon is being held.

EDA companies often address hardware/software co-design from a hardware… Read More