Making PLM Actually Work for for IC Design

Making PLM Actually Work for for IC Design
by Tom Simon on 04-12-2016 at 12:00 pm

The topic of Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) conjures up images of usage on airplanes, tanks and cars. That’s because it was developed decades ago to help make product development and delivery more efficient for big expensive manufactured products. It worked well for its intended markets by combining and managing all the … Read More


How to Overcome HW Project Release Nightmares

How to Overcome HW Project Release Nightmares
by Tom Simon on 12-21-2015 at 8:00 pm

Is a software development release methodology a “square peg in a round hole” when it comes to hardware design? To answer this question we have to look at how exactly hardware design projects differ from their software counterparts. Intuitively we know they are fundamentally different. Let’s take a second to dig deeper to understand… Read More


How to Live with Rapid Changes During Early Development of IP

How to Live with Rapid Changes During Early Development of IP
by Tom Simon on 10-30-2015 at 4:00 pm

Best practices call for using a version control system with systematic releases when developing IP. However, in the early stages of IP development using a rigid version control system with a cumbersome release process can hinder productivity. To fully understand how this works we should start by defining what is meant when we … Read More


Threat Detection: How To Keep the Crown Jewels Secure

Threat Detection: How To Keep the Crown Jewels Secure
by Paul McLellan on 09-02-2015 at 7:00 am

Let’s just take it as a given that securing IP design data is critical. It’s rather like saying that it’s a good idea to have security in the Tower of London to stop the crown jewels being stolen. IP blocks are the crown jewels of an SoC company.

Data now must be secured within the collaborative teams that share that… Read More


Top 10 Reasons to Use Industry-standard Data Management

Top 10 Reasons to Use Industry-standard Data Management
by Paul McLellan on 04-21-2015 at 7:00 am

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


Design Collaboration across Multiple Sites

Design Collaboration across Multiple Sites
by Pawan Fangaria on 09-02-2014 at 12:00 pm

Any SoC or IC design project, whether implemented at the same design site or multiple sites requires some data management tools to manage things such as a central data repository, revision management of files, etc., for effective co-ordination of work among different team members. Given the challenge of meeting the shrinking… Read More


A Tale of Two Events, Make that Three, Wait…How about Four?

A Tale of Two Events, Make that Three, Wait…How about Four?
by Camille Kokozaki on 05-05-2013 at 8:05 pm

It is increasingly apparent that Kurzweil’s Singularity is sure getting near, if it is not here already 32 years too soon. Not a week goes by without missing or needing to attend a key conference, seminar, symposium, summit, with each having parallel streams, panels, exhibits, demos, social networking. Not only are we informed,… Read More