“Find bugs earlier.” Every software developer has heard that mantra. In many ways, SoC and FPGA design has become very similar to software development – but in a few crucial ways, it is very different. Those differences raise a new question we should be asking about uncovering defects: earlier than when?… Read More
With growing size and complexity of SoC, the semiconductor community is realizing the growing pain of verification. The cost of SoC verification grows exponentially with design size. Moreover, there is no single methodology for verifying a SoC; multiple engines are used in different contexts through different verification… Read More
Since creating the landmark “all-you-can-eat” license with Samsung in 2002, ARM has inked several subscription deals with chipmakers and EDA firms. The latest ARM subscriber license deal just announced is for Mentor Graphics. What makes their strategy unique?… Read More
It’s that time of year again – DVCon starts on Monday Feb 29[SUP]th[/SUP] and as always should be a packed event. Synopsys plans a big showing, in the exhibit hall, in a sponsored lunch, at tutorials and in papers. Time to get your conference shoes on and go check them out – I plan to be there all week.
One of the most obvious things you will… Read More
Hardware emulators and FPGA-based prototyping systems are descendants of the same ancestor. The Quickturn Systems Rapid Prototype Machine (RPM) introduced in May 1988 brought an array of Xilinx XC3090 FPGAs to emulate designs with hundreds of thousands of gates. From there, hardware emulators and FPGA-based prototyping … Read More
Audits. The mere mention of the word keeps project managers up at night and sends most designers running. However, in the case of FPGA designs seeking DO-254 compliance, the product doesn’t ship until the audit is complete – there is no avoiding it, or skating around it.… Read More
Imagine how semiconductor design sizes leapt higher with automation in digital design, which started from standard hardware languages like Verilog and VHDL; analog design automation is still catching up. However, it was not without a significant effort put in moving designers from entering schematics to writing RTL, which… Read More
Software-centric Emulation environment takes the forefront in modern SoC verification. As more and more devices are IoT enabled, the SoCs have to make special provisions to factor many things including communication, power usage, and network switching, and so on. Also, the demand for an SoC (specifically for smartphone which… Read More
Success stories are great. Reading how someone uses a product contributes much more insight than reading about a product. Last month we had a teaser for a presentation by Wave Semiconductor; this month, we have the slides showing how they are using FPGA-based prototyping, AXI transactions, and DPI to speed up development.
First,… Read More
Michael Sanie (Senior Director Marketing in the Synopsys Verification Group) gave the wrap-up presentation at SpyGlass World recently, on the Synopsys Verification Direction. I learned from an interview Michael gave to Paul McLellan that he is an accomplished pianist. I’m a pianist also, though of considerably less talent,… Read More
