Reduce Errors in Multi-threaded Designs

Reduce Errors in Multi-threaded Designs
by Randy Smith on 04-28-2013 at 1:00 pm

Many advanced algorithmic IPs are described in C++. We use this language because of its flexibility. Of course software algorithms are written to be executed on processors so they don’t solve all the issues of getting the algorithm implemented in hardware directly. This is not simply a high-level synthesis (HLS) issue. Usually… Read More


ISCUG – Excellent Indian Conference, needs to grow

ISCUG – Excellent Indian Conference, needs to grow
by Pawan Fangaria on 04-21-2013 at 8:05 pm

Promoted by Accellera, SystemC User Groups are in work worldwide; NASCUGin North America, ESCUGin Europe and ISCUG in India. While I was shuffling between my day-to-day work and strategy management course/exams, I received an invitation from my long time colleague, President and CEO of Circuitsutra Technologies, Mr. UmeshRead More


Xilinx: Hide the RTL

Xilinx: Hide the RTL
by Paul McLellan on 04-16-2013 at 7:30 pm

Tom Feist of Xilinx presented here at the GlobalPress Electronics Summit about their strategy to take design abstraction up another level. In the SoC world, we are still pretty much stuck at the RTL level and have moved to higher abstractions by using an IP strategy. But at least all IC designers are RTL-literate.


Xilinx, in the Vivado… Read More


Mentor Shines at DVCon

Mentor Shines at DVCon
by Beth Martin on 02-18-2013 at 12:30 am

Mentor Graphics will be all over DVCon next week (February 25-28) at the DoubleTree hotel in San Jose.

In addition to attending all the panels, tutorials, posters, and the keynote, you can visit Mentor in booth 901 on the exhibit floor.
Here’s the lineup of Mentor-related events:… Read More


SystemC vs C++ for High Level Synthesis

SystemC vs C++ for High Level Synthesis
by Paul McLellan on 12-04-2012 at 4:00 pm

One of the decisions that needs to be made when using high-level synthesis (HLS) in general and Catapult in particular is what language to use as input. The choice is C++ or SystemC. Of course at some level SystemC is C++ with added libraries and templates, but in fact the semantics of the two languages end up being very different.

The… Read More


Accelera Technical Excellence Award

Accelera Technical Excellence Award
by Paul McLellan on 11-30-2012 at 3:46 pm

The Accellera Systems Initiative, most well-known for driving the standardization of various aspects of Verilog and SystemVerilog before handing the standards off to the IEEE, has announced that nominations are open for the 2013 Technical Excellence Award. This recognizes outstanding contributions in the creation of EDA… Read More


Scoreboards and Results Predictors in UVM

Scoreboards and Results Predictors in UVM
by Daniel Nenni on 07-15-2012 at 10:56 am

If verification is the art of determining that your design works correctly under all specified conditions, then it is imperative that we are able to create an environment that can tell you if this is truly the case.

Scoreboards are verification components that determine that the DUT is working correctly, including ensuring that… Read More


How many languages an Engineer should speak?

How many languages an Engineer should speak?
by ahmed.shahein on 06-08-2012 at 9:37 am

I speak VHDL and SystemC, others speak Verilog and SystemVerilog … what do you speak?

Before getting into the core of the topic let me give you some round figures, engineers love numbers. Julian Lonsdale “European Sales Manager at Aldec” informed me at the Xfest Munich last month that Aldec carried out a survey to evaluate the usage… Read More


Introducing TLMCentral

Introducing TLMCentral
by Paul McLellan on 09-29-2011 at 8:00 am

Way back in 1999 the open SystemC initiative (OSCI) was launched. In 2005 the IEEE standard for SystemC (IEEE1666-2005 if you are counting) was approved. In 2008, TLM 2.0 was standardized (transactional level models), making building virtual platforms using SystemC models easier. At least the models should be play nicely together,… Read More


Synopsys Virtualizer

Synopsys Virtualizer
by Paul McLellan on 07-19-2011 at 8:00 am

As you probably know, Synopsys last year acquired VaST and CoWare and a couple of years early had acquired Virtio. All three companies primarily competed in the virtual platform market. In addition, Synopsys is the #2 IP company (behind ARM) and has a wide range of tools for SoC design. So the interesting question is how would they… Read More