Electromigration (EM) with an Electrically-Aware IC Design Flow

Electromigration (EM) with an Electrically-Aware IC Design Flow
by Daniel Payne on 11-03-2012 at 4:05 pm

fig2a

Electromigration (EM) is a reliability concern for IC designers because a failure in the field could spell disaster as in lost human life or even bankruptcy for a consumer electronics company. In the old days of IC design we would follow a sequential and iterative design process of:… Read More


Jasper Apps White Paper

Jasper Apps White Paper
by Paul McLellan on 11-01-2012 at 7:30 pm

Just in time for the Jasper User Group meeting, Jasper have a new white paper explaining the concept of JasperGold Apps.

First the User Group Meeting. It is in Cupertino at the Cypress Hotel November 12-13th. For more details and to register, go here. The meeting is free for qualified attendees (aka users). One thing I noticed at the… Read More


SpyGlass IP Kit 2.0

SpyGlass IP Kit 2.0
by Paul McLellan on 11-01-2012 at 6:00 pm

On Halloween, Atrenta and TSMC announced the availability of SpyGlass IP Kit 2.0. IP Kit is a fundamental element of TSMC’s soft IP9000 Quality Assessment program that assesses the robustness and completeness of soft (synthesizable) IP.

IP Kit 2.0 will be fully supported on TSMC-Online and available to all TSMC’s soft IP alliance… Read More


ARM and a LEG

ARM and a LEG
by Paul McLellan on 11-01-2012 at 5:09 pm

I went to Warren East’s keynote speech at ARM Techcon today. There had been some hints earlier in the week that some significant announcements would be made and, while they were not earth-shattering, I think that they will be significant in the long term.

One interesting thing that Warren pointed out is that the ARM partner… Read More


IBM Tapes Out 14nm ARM Processor on Cadence Flow

IBM Tapes Out 14nm ARM Processor on Cadence Flow
by Paul McLellan on 10-30-2012 at 7:33 pm

An announcement at the ARM conference was of a joint project to tape out an ARM Cortex-M0 in IBM’s 14nm FinFET process. In fact they taped out 3 different versions of the chip using different routing architectures to see the impact on yield.

This was the first 14nm ARM tapeout, it seems. I’m sure Intel has built plenty … Read More


Jasper Property Synthesis Apps

Jasper Property Synthesis Apps
by Paul McLellan on 10-29-2012 at 7:00 am

Jasper restructured JasperGold so that it could deliver its formal technology more flexibly by having a base system and a porfolio of apps. This would also make it easier to upgrade capabilities by creating new apps. Today, Jasper announced two new apps:

  • JasperGold Structural Property Synthesis (SPS)
  • JasperGold Behavioral
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An AMS Reference Flow for Power Management Designs

An AMS Reference Flow for Power Management Designs
by Daniel Payne on 10-26-2012 at 5:42 pm

At DAC in June I visited and blogged about 30+ EDA and Semi IP companies, however I didn’t have time to watch the TowerJazz presentation in the Cadence Theater entitled: AMS Flow for Power Management Designs. Today I watched the 26 minute video and have summarized what I learned in this blog post.… Read More


CDNLive Call For Papers

CDNLive Call For Papers
by Paul McLellan on 10-24-2012 at 6:44 pm

The Silicon Valley CDNLive, the Cadence user conference, will be on March 12-13th 2013 in Santa Clara. But the heart of CDNLive are customer presentations and the call for papers is now open. The deadline is December 4th (at 5pm PST for people who really like to come down to the wire). At this point only an abstract is required.

There… Read More


The Auto Industry Speaks @ Renesas DevCon

The Auto Industry Speaks @ Renesas DevCon
by Holly Stump on 10-23-2012 at 9:00 pm


This year’s Renesas DevCon in Orange County, CA kicked off yesterday with an impressive lineup of speakers, record attendance, and an increased focus on automotive.

TheAuto Industry Speaks,” an Expert Panel organized by Martin Bakerof Renesas, featured:

  • Yoichi Yano, RenesasExecutive VP and Member of the Board, who early
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Power and Reliability Challenges

Power and Reliability Challenges
by Paul McLellan on 10-23-2012 at 12:38 pm

Last week I attended the Ansys/Apache seminars on “Dimensions of Electronic Design.” The two big challenges as we go down to 28nm and 20nm and below are keeping power manageable and keeping reliability up.

The big challenge with power is that we can put so much stuff on a die and clock it so fast that the power is exceeding… Read More