Addressing the Nanometer Digital Design Challenges! (Webinars)

Addressing the Nanometer Digital Design Challenges! (Webinars)
by Daniel Nenni on 07-27-2012 at 7:30 pm

Optimizing logical, physical, electrical, and manufacturing effects, Cadence digital implementation technology eliminates iteration without sacrificing design quality by addressing timing sensitivity, yield variation, and leakage power from the start. … Read More


Synopsys Protocol Analyzer Video

Synopsys Protocol Analyzer Video
by Paul McLellan on 07-27-2012 at 3:07 pm

Josefina Hobbs, a solutions architect at Synopsys, demonstrates protocol debug made easy using the Synopsys Protocol Analyzer. This gives users a graphical view of the transfers, transaction, packets and handshaking of a protocol. The video also shows the integration of Synopsys Protocol Analyzer with SpringSoft’s… Read More


Parasitic-Aware Design Flow with Virtuoso

Parasitic-Aware Design Flow with Virtuoso
by Daniel Payne on 07-27-2012 at 12:01 pm

I learn a lot these days through webinars and videos because IC design tools like schematic capture and custom layout are visually oriented. Today I watched a video presentation from Steve Lewis and Stacy Whiteman of Cadence that showed how Virtuoso 6.1.5 is used in a custom IC design flow:… Read More


Addressing the Nanometer Custom IC Design Challenges! (Webinars)

Addressing the Nanometer Custom IC Design Challenges! (Webinars)
by Daniel Nenni on 07-26-2012 at 7:30 am

Selectively automating non-critical aspects of custom IC design allows engineers to focus on precision-crafting their designs. Cadence circuit design solutions enable fast and accurate entry of design concepts, which includes managing design intent in a way that flows naturally in the schematic. Using this advanced, parasitic-aware… Read More


MemCon Returns

MemCon Returns
by Paul McLellan on 07-25-2012 at 9:44 am

Back before Denali was acquired by Cadence they used to run an annual conference called MemCon. Since Denali was the Switzerland of EDA, friend of everyone and enemy of none, there would be presentations from other memory IP companies and from major EDA companies. For example, in 2010, Bruggeman, then CMO of Cadence, gave the opening… Read More


How Many Licenses Do You Buy?

How Many Licenses Do You Buy?
by Paul McLellan on 07-23-2012 at 6:16 pm

An informal survey of RTDA customers reveals that larger companies tend to buy licenses based on peak usage while smaller companies do not have that luxury and have to settle for fewer licenses than they would ideally have and optimize the mix of licenses that they can afford given their budget. Larger companies get better prices… Read More


Libraries Make a Power Difference in SoC Design

Libraries Make a Power Difference in SoC Design
by Daniel Payne on 07-23-2012 at 4:37 pm

ken brock

At Intel we used to hand-craft every single transistor size to eek out the ultimate in IC performance for DRAM and graphic chips. Today, there are many libraries that you can choose from for an SoC design in order to reach your power, speed and area trade-offs. I’m going to attend a Synopsys webinar on August 2nd to learn more Read More


EUV: No Pellicle

EUV: No Pellicle
by Paul McLellan on 07-22-2012 at 10:00 pm

There’s a dirty secret problem about EUV that people don’t seem to to be talking about. There’s no pellicle on a EUV mask. OK, probably you have no idea what that means, a lot of jargon words, nor why it would be important, but it seems to me it could be the killer problem for EUV.

In refractive masks, you print a pattern… Read More


Directed Self Assembly

Directed Self Assembly
by Paul McLellan on 07-19-2012 at 9:00 pm

At Semicon, Ben Rathsack of Tokyo Electron America talked about directed self assembly (DSA) at the standing-room only lithography morning. So what is it? Self assembly involves taking two monomers that don’t mix and letting them polymerise (so like styrene forming polystyrene). Since they won’t mix they will … Read More


How Do You Extract 3D IC Structures?

How Do You Extract 3D IC Structures?
by Daniel Payne on 07-18-2012 at 2:01 pm

The press has been buzzing about 3D everything for the past few years, so when it comes to IC design it’s a fair question to ask how would you actually extract 3D IC structures for use by analysis tools like a circuit simulator. I read a white paper by Christen Decoin and Vassilis Kourkoulos of Mentor Graphics this week and became… Read More