Next Generation FPGA Prototyping

Next Generation FPGA Prototyping
by Paul McLellan on 11-12-2012 at 7:00 am

One technology that has quietly gone mainstream in semiconductor design is FPGA prototyping. That is, using an FPGA version of the design to run extensive verification. There are two approaches to doing this. The first way is simply to build an prototype board, buy some FPGAs from Xilinx or Altera and do everything yourself. The… Read More


Why are AMS designers turned off by Behavioral Modeling?

Why are AMS designers turned off by Behavioral Modeling?
by Ian Getreu on 11-11-2012 at 8:10 pm

Analog Mixed-Signal (AMS) behavioral models have not caught on with the AMS designer community. Why? I suspect a significant reason (but certainly not the only one) is the way they are presented.

First, what is AMS behavioral modeling?

I define it as “a set of user-defined equations that decribe the terminal behavior of a component”.… Read More


Static Timing Analysis for Memory Characterization

Static Timing Analysis for Memory Characterization
by Daniel Payne on 11-11-2012 at 6:18 pm

Modern SoC (System On Chip) designs contain a larger number of RAM (Random Access Memory) instances, so how do you know what the speed, timing and power are for any instance? There are a couple of approaches:
[LIST=1]

  • Trust the IP supplier to give you models that use polynomial equations to curve-fit the performance numbers based
  • Read More

    Smartphone Market Share

    Smartphone Market Share
    by Paul McLellan on 11-09-2012 at 12:47 pm

    The numbers for smartphone sales in Q3 are starting to roll in. These are in units and not yet revenue (let alone profit) numbers although everyone down to Sony is for sure profitable. Samsung is running away with the volume, selling more than Apple, Huawei and Sony put together. One name that is missing is Motorola (Google) which … Read More


    ICCAD at 30: Alberto Looks Back and Forward

    ICCAD at 30: Alberto Looks Back and Forward
    by Paul McLellan on 11-08-2012 at 8:10 pm

    At ICCAD earlier this week, CEDA sponsored a talk by Alberto Sangiovanni-Vincentelli looking back over the last 30 years (it is the 30th anniversary of ICCAD) and looking to the future. As is always the case in these sorts of presentations, the retrospective contained a lot more detail than the going forward part. Clayton Christensen… Read More


    IJTAG, Testing Large SoCs

    IJTAG, Testing Large SoCs
    by Paul McLellan on 11-08-2012 at 5:57 pm

    Test is the Rodney Dangerfield of EDA, it doesn’t get any respect. All designs need to be tested but somehow synthesis, routing, analog layout and the rest are the sexy areas. In my spoof all purpose EDA keynote address I even dissed it:You are short on time so slip in a quick mention of manufacturing test. Who knows anything … Read More


    Solido and TSMC for 6-Sigma Memory Design

    Solido and TSMC for 6-Sigma Memory Design
    by Daniel Nenni on 11-06-2012 at 8:30 pm

    Solido Design Automation and TSMC recently published an article in EE Times describing how Solido’s High-Sigma Monte Carlo tool is used with TSMC PDK’s to achieve high-yield, high-performance memory design. This project has been a big part of my life for the past three years and it is time for a victory lap!

    In TSMC 28nm, 20nm and … Read More


    Should ARM care about MIPS acquisition?

    Should ARM care about MIPS acquisition?
    by Eric Esteve on 11-06-2012 at 3:09 am

    It was not really a surprise to learn that, finally, MIPS have been sold, as the company was officially for sale since April 2012. Nevertheless, the interesting part of this news comes from the buyer’ identity: Imagination Technologies. Imagination is an UK based company, like ARM, selling processor IP cores, like ARM, but the … Read More


    16nm FinFET versus 20nm Planar!

    16nm FinFET versus 20nm Planar!
    by Daniel Nenni on 11-04-2012 at 8:10 pm

    The common theme amongst semiconductor ecosystem conferences this year is FinFETS, probably the most exciting technology we will see this decade. A lot has been written on SemiWiki about FinFETS, it is one of the top trending search terms, but there is some confusion about the process naming so let me attempt to explain.

    In planar… Read More


    Chip On Wafer On Substrate (CoWoS)

    Chip On Wafer On Substrate (CoWoS)
    by Daniel Payne on 11-03-2012 at 5:19 pm

    tsmc cowos test vehicle1

    Our EDA industry loves three letter acronyms so credit the same industry for creating a five letter acronym CoWoS. Two weeks ago TSMC announced tape-out of their first CoWoS test chip integrating with JEDEC Wide I/O mobile DRAM interface, making me interested enough to read more about it. At the recent TSMC Open Innovation Platform… Read More