DAC 2026: The Trouble with John Cooley’s Troublemaker Panel

DAC 2026: The Trouble with John Cooley’s Troublemaker Panel
by Mike Gianfagna on 07-31-2026 at 10:00 am

DAC 2026 The Trouble with John Cooley’s Troublemaker Panel

For quite a few years, John Cooley has hosted the Troublemaker Panel at DAC. The event consists of a panel of senior executives from the EDA industry. John Cooley asks his readers for “edgy” questions to ask the panelists and on event day, he does just that. Those with complete responses that are backed with real data from real customers… Read More


Formal Acceleration on FPGA. Innovation in Verification

Formal Acceleration on FPGA. Innovation in Verification
by Bernard Murphy on 07-30-2026 at 6:00 am

Innovation New

Extending hardware acceleration to formal verification is a powerful idea to extend hardware acceleration to a verification domain that has not got much attention for acceleration. Paul Cunningham (GM, Verification at Cadence), Raúl Camposano (Silicon Catalyst, entrepreneur, former Synopsys CTO and lecturer at Stanford,… Read More


Applying QED to Hardware Accelerator Verification. Innovation in Verification

Applying QED to Hardware Accelerator Verification. Innovation in Verification
by Bernard Murphy on 06-30-2026 at 6:00 am

Innovation New

QED (Quick Error Detection) can be a powerful complementary addition to verification but can be subject to size constraints. This month’s paper looks at a fix for that limitation. Paul Cunningham (GM, Verification at Cadence), Raúl Camposano (Silicon Catalyst, entrepreneur, former Synopsys CTO and lecturer at Stanford, EE292A)… Read More


Quantum Simulation Using Decision Diagrams. Innovation in Verification

Quantum Simulation Using Decision Diagrams. Innovation in Verification
by Bernard Murphy on 05-28-2026 at 6:00 am

Innovation New

Quantum gate simulation complexity explodes as qubit counts increase. One way to manage this complexity in simulation on classical computers is through use of decision diagrams in place of matrices. Paul Cunningham (GM, Verification at Cadence), Raúl Camposano (Silicon Catalyst, entrepreneur, former Synopsys CTO and lecturer… Read More


UX in Agentic Systems. Innovation in Verification

UX in Agentic Systems. Innovation in Verification
by Bernard Murphy on 04-28-2026 at 6:00 am

Innovation New

A switch this month to principles behind building effective agentic systems, going beyond simply a new way to stitch together tools, agents and orchestration, to deeper consideration of user experience and how we most effectively blend agentic with human-in-the-loop. Paul Cunningham (GM, Verification at Cadence), Raúl Camposano… Read More


Post-Silicon Validating an MMU. Innovation in Verification

Post-Silicon Validating an MMU. Innovation in Verification
by Bernard Murphy on 03-25-2026 at 6:00 am

Innovation New

Some post-silicon bugs are unavoidable, but we’re getting better at catching them before we ship. Here we look at a method based on a bare-metal exerciser to stress-test the MMU. Paul Cunningham (GM, Verification at Cadence), Raúl Camposano (Silicon Catalyst, entrepreneur, former Synopsys CTO and lecturer at Stanford, EE292A)… Read More


2025 Retrospective. Innovation in Verification

2025 Retrospective. Innovation in Verification
by Bernard Murphy on 01-29-2026 at 6:00 am

Innovation New

As usual in January we start with a look back at the papers we reviewed last year. Paul Cunningham (GM, Verification at Cadence), Raúl Camposano (Silicon Catalyst, entrepreneur, former Synopsys CTO and lecturer at Stanford, EE292A) and I continue our series on research ideas. As always, feedback welcome.

Looking back at 2025

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Simulating Quantum Computers. Innovation in Verification

Simulating Quantum Computers. Innovation in Verification
by Bernard Murphy on 12-29-2025 at 6:00 am

Innovation New

Quantum algorithms must be simulated on classical computers to validate correct behavior, but this looks very different from classical logic simulation. Paul Cunningham (GM, Verification at Cadence), Raúl Camposano (Silicon Catalyst, entrepreneur, former Synopsys CTO and lecturer at Stanford, EE292A) and I continue our… Read More


Agentic Bug Localization. Innovation in Verification

Agentic Bug Localization. Innovation in Verification
by Bernard Murphy on 11-26-2025 at 6:00 am

Innovation New

Bug localization continues to be a challenge for both bug triage and root-cause analysis. Agentic approaches suggest a way forward. Paul Cunningham (GM, Verification at Cadence), Raúl Camposano (Silicon Catalyst, entrepreneur, former Synopsys CTO and lecturer at Stanford, EE292A) and I continue our series on research ideas.… Read More


Emulator-Like Simulation Acceleration on GPUs. Innovation in Verification

Emulator-Like Simulation Acceleration on GPUs. Innovation in Verification
by Bernard Murphy on 10-28-2025 at 6:00 am

Innovation New

GPUs have been proposed before to accelerate logic simulation but haven’t quite met the need yet. This is a new attempt based on emulating emulator flows. Paul Cunningham (GM, Verification at Cadence), Raúl Camposano (Silicon Catalyst, entrepreneur, former Synopsys CTO and lecturer at Stanford, EE292A) and I continue our series… Read More