Managing any design data management system requires a policy on how often users should be submitting their changes to the central repository. If users commit frequently with less local testing then other users will more likely see errors. If commits are done less often, but with better testing, then other users are protected from… Read More
There is a data explosion:
This … Read More
Should a semiconductor/IP company use a proprietary data-management (DM) environment? Or even develop their own? After all, every company is unique and developing a unique DM allows a perfect match of just what is required for that particular company. And, in principle, a proprietary DM system can underpin the design management… Read More
Chip design is largely about assembling pre-designed IP, either developed in other groups in the same company, or brought in from a 3rd party, or occasionally developed within the SoC design group itself. But that makes it sound like it is a bunch of blocks linked together with some interconnect, but of course another important … Read More
I sat down this afternoon with Peter Theunis, the CTO of Methodics. Conveniently their office is about a 15 minute walk from where I live so we could chat face to face.
Peter started programming when he was 8 and his first “product” was a weather system for orchards where sensors in the orchards would send information … Read More
My PhD thesis is titled The Design of a Network Filing System. Yes, that was a research topic back then (and yes, we did call them filing systems not file-systems). One big chapter was on access controls. There are several problems with designing an access control system:
Digital designers are more numerous than analog IC designers, and so they tend to get more attention from EDA vendors in terms of tools and automation methodologies. For an analog design team with specialists focused separately on schematics and layout there are several methodology questions that need to be addressed, like:… Read More
As a blogger I have the privilege of meeting many IC designers from around the world, mostly through contact on LinkedIn or from connecting at trade shows. Through a contact at DACI met up with Achim Graupner, a manager of methodology and design automation from ZMDI, then asked him for an interview to understand how his group does … Read More
Designing an SoC sounds way more exciting than bug tracking, but let’s face it – any bug has the potential to make your silicon fail, so we need to take a serious look at the approaches to bug tracking. When using an IP or an IP subsystem in a design, the SoC integrators require some critical knowledge about this IP. The actual… Read More
At DACin San Francisco this past June I was able to visit and blog about two dozen EDA companies, however there were so many more products and events to see that I couldn’t possibly have enough time to enjoy them all. Fortunately for me there were plenty of videos made of vendor presentations, so this week I got caught up a bit by… Read More
