New Vivado release goes from Lab to UltraScale

New Vivado release goes from Lab to UltraScale
by Don Dingee on 05-06-2015 at 1:00 am

Xilinx users will welcome the brand-new release of Vivado Design Suite 2015.1. For openers, device support for the latest FPGAs in the UltraScale family – XCVU440, XCVU190, and XCVU125 – has been added in the release, and early access code for the XCVU160 is available from a local Xilinx FAE. Installation has been streamlined, … Read More


A Vision for FPGA Prototyping Realized

A Vision for FPGA Prototyping Realized
by Daniel Nenni on 04-27-2015 at 7:00 am

FPGA prototyping is beginning its move to the forefront of design and verification. More and more companies are turning to this technology not only for in-circuit testing and earlier software development but also for refining, validating, and implementing chip architecture. The increases in design size and complexity as well… Read More


Xilinx at NAB: Any Media Over Any Network

Xilinx at NAB: Any Media Over Any Network
by Paul McLellan on 04-11-2015 at 7:00 am

The NAB (National Association of Broadcasters) show has just started, April 11-16th in Las Vegas. It covers a very broad range of topics:
As the premier trade association for broadcasters, NAB advances the interests of our members in federal government, industry and public affairs; improves the quality and profitability of Read More


Security All Around in SoCs at DAC

Security All Around in SoCs at DAC
by Pawan Fangaria on 04-06-2015 at 12:00 am

Last month I was on my way to write a detailed article on important aspects to look at while designing an SoC. This was important in the new context of modern SoCs that go much beyond the traditional power, performance and area (PPA) requirements. I had about 12-13 parameters in my list that I couldn’t cover in one go, so I put the write-up… Read More


Intel to Buy Altera?

Intel to Buy Altera?
by Paul McLellan on 03-28-2015 at 1:05 pm

You may already have heard today’s big news in the semiconductor fabless ecosystem that Intel is apparently in talks to buy Altera. I embarrassed myself predicting that Samsung were in talks to buy Freescale (which, of course, they might have been but NXP won that particular race). But this time it is definite enough that … Read More


2015, the Year of the Sheep…And the 16nm FPGA

2015, the Year of the Sheep…And the 16nm FPGA
by Paul McLellan on 03-10-2015 at 7:00 am

If you live in California anyway, with its large Asian population, you can’t have helped noticing that it was the Lunar New Year a couple of weeks ago, the start of the year of the sheep. A couple of days after the New Year, Xilinx announced their new families of what they now call FPGAs, 3D ICs and MPSoCs. But which the rest of us … Read More


Synflow and Cx

Synflow and Cx
by Paul McLellan on 03-04-2015 at 9:00 am

When hardware designers hear about a new language their heart sinks. We already have Verilog, SystemVerilog and VHDL. And if you go up a level, we have C, C++ and SystemC. Isn’t that enough? However, if you tell a software engineer about a new language they are interested, there are hundreds of programming language and hundreds… Read More


Got FPGA Timing Closure Problems?

Got FPGA Timing Closure Problems?
by Paul McLellan on 02-26-2015 at 7:00 am

I had a meeting with Harn Hua Ng, the CEO of Plunify, a couple of weeks ago. They are an EDA company that I’d never heard of. Partially that is because they only play in the FPGA space, a country I visit less frequently than SoC land. Plus, they are based in Singapore, a country I have only been to a couple of times in my life.

Plunify… Read More


Dealing with FPGA IP in all its forms

Dealing with FPGA IP in all its forms
by Don Dingee on 02-12-2015 at 10:00 pm

One of the recurring themes I see here in the pages of SemiWiki and elsewhere is this pitched, bordering on religious battle between Altera and Xilinx. Just because both are FPGA technologies, the tendency is to put them in the same bucket, drawing direct comparisons between them. Some folks say there is no comparison; Xilinx has… Read More


Tabula Closes its Doors

Tabula Closes its Doors
by Paul McLellan on 01-28-2015 at 3:55 pm

I heard a rumor at lunchtime that Tabula was closing its doors. A friend of mine talked to a couple of employees and it is true. They have to be given 2 months notice apparently so the doors don’t actually close until March 24th. I thought they had raised $150M but Wikipedia (not always reliable of course) says $215M. They were … Read More