By now most SoC designers are pretty familiar and comfortable with the use of Network on Chip (NOC) IP for interconnecting functional blocks. Looking at the underlying change that NOCs represent, we see the use of IP to supplant the use of tools for implementing a critical part of the design. The idea that ‘smart’ things are better… Read More
There is an important difference between low power and low energy in SOC design. Low power focuses on instantaneous power consumption. This is frequently done to deal with cooling and heat dissipation issues. Of course, it serves as a prerequisite for low energy design, which seeks to reduce overall power consumption over time.… Read More
As the months of 2020 passed by, I started noticing more and more people sporting what looked like fashionable ear accessories. I’m of course referring to True Wireless Stereo (TWS) earbuds. With the rapid increase in online meetings due to social distancing requirements, it appeared that adoption of TWS earbuds was even faster… Read More
UPF was created to go beyond what HDL can do for managing on-chip power. HDLs are agnostic when it comes to dealing with supply & ground connections, power domains, level shifters, retention and other power management related elements of SoCs. UPF fills the breach allowing designers to specify in detail what parts of the design… Read More
Clock domain crossing (CDC) analysis is unavoidable in any modern SoC design and is challenging enough to verify in its own right. CDC plus low power management adds more excitement to your verification task. I wrote on this topic for another solution provider last year. This time I want to intro an interesting twist on the problem,… Read More
Embedded FPGA use is on the rise. The programmability offered by this kind of IP finds many applications in complex SoCs. There was a recent announcement that OpenFive had licensed Flex Logix’s eFPGA to develop a low power communications SoC. The part required a large eFPGA. The news was reported on SemiWiki here. This announcement… Read More
Wearables devices have been adopted for health monitoring, augmented reality and entertainment. Being so close to the human body, these products are driven by comfort and style. Engineers strive to deliver high-end experience using very limited constraints like small area and power.
This webinar explores the new and growing… Read More
In the early days of Atrenta I met with Ralph Marlett, a distinguished test expert with many years of experience at Zuken and Recal Redac. He talked me into believing we could do meaningful static analysis for DFT-friendliness at RTL. His work with us really opened my eyes to the challenges that test groups face in integrating their… Read More
As if engineers did not have enough difficulty just getting everything right so that their designs are implemented functionally correct, the demands of lowering power consumption require changes that can affect functionality and verification. Techniques such as power gating, clock gating, mixed supply voltage, voltage … Read More
If you are like me, you will get a 5G phone because of the high bandwidth it offers. However, there is a lot more to 5G than just fast data. In fact, one of the appealing features of 5G is low bandwidth communication. This is useful for edge devices that perform infrequent and low volume data transfers and depend on long battery life. Prior… Read More
