A Brief History of EDA

A Brief History of EDA
by Daniel Nenni on 08-05-2012 at 6:00 pm

Electronic Design Automation, or more affectionately known as EDA, is a relatively young $5B industry with a very colorful upbringing, one that I have experienced firsthand, I’m very grateful for, and is an honor to write about. Today EDA employs an estimated 27,000 people! There is a nice EDA Wikipedia page which can be found hereRead More


Synopsys Challenges with SpringSoft Acquisition

Synopsys Challenges with SpringSoft Acquisition
by Daniel Payne on 08-03-2012 at 12:41 pm

Another week in EDA and yet another acquisition by Synopsys as they buy SpringSoft this time for $406 million in cash. Paul McLellan wrote a good blog on this merger too.

Last week I blogged about the product overlap and integration challenges that Synopsys faces with the acquisition of Ciranova
.

Let’s take a look at the IC … Read More


Webinar on Multi-voltage/VT/Channel Length Libraries

Webinar on Multi-voltage/VT/Channel Length Libraries
by Daniel Payne on 08-02-2012 at 8:10 pm

ken brock

Ken Brockof Synopsys presented on how to optimize your SoC design for low power at 40nm, 28nm and 20nm nodes in a webinar today. Ken and I both worked together at Silicon Compilers back in the late 1980’s, the best EDA/IP company that I’ve had the pleasure to join.

The webinar made a brief mention of 14nm and FinFETS but … Read More


Verdi Integrated with Synopsys Protocol Analyzer

Verdi Integrated with Synopsys Protocol Analyzer
by Paul McLellan on 08-01-2012 at 4:28 pm

Josefina Hobbs, a solutions architect at Synopsys, shows the integration of Synopsys Protocol Analyzer with SpringSoft’s Verdi using the Verdi Interoperability Apps (VIA) which gives open access to the Verdi KDB and FSDB databases. She also demonstrates protocol debug made easy using the Protocol Analyzer. This gives… Read More


Synopsys Acquires Ciranova

Synopsys Acquires Ciranova
by Daniel Payne on 07-30-2012 at 6:00 pm

Consolidation continues in the EDA industry with Synopsys announcing today that they acquired Ciranova, a provider of software to automate custom IC layout. Remember that Synopsys invested in Ciranova back in March 2008 and September 2010 (along with Intel Capital, Mentor Graphics and Alloy Ventures), so this deal has some … 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


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


Using Synopsys Analysis Tools for AMS Design

Using Synopsys Analysis Tools for AMS Design
by Daniel Payne on 07-11-2012 at 12:05 pm

I attended the Synopsys webinar today for a tool called Custom Explorer Ultra (CXU). Product details on the Synopsys web site are here. The CXU tool would be used by AMS designers that want to setup, control and view results from simulators like HSPICE, CustomSim or VCS on transistor-level and AMS designs.… Read More


Enabling 3D-IC Integration

Enabling 3D-IC Integration
by Daniel Nenni on 07-10-2012 at 9:00 pm

stevesmith80x95

As 2D device scaling becomes impractical, 3D-IC integration is emerging as the natural evolution of semiconductor technology; it is the convergence of performance, power and functionality. Some of the benefits of 3D-IC, such as increasing complexity, improved performance, reducing power consumption and decreasing footprints,… Read More


SNUG in Asia, US East Coast

SNUG in Asia, US East Coast
by Paul McLellan on 07-10-2012 at 8:05 pm

If you are in Asia then the Synopsys user group SNUG is coming up, soon in Japan and next month in China. Actually if you are in India I’m afraid you already missed it last month, just after DAC.

SNUG Japan is on 12th July in a couple of days time from 10am until 8pm in Tokyo.

In China there are 3 between August 14th and 21st

  • Beijing 北京
Read More