New tools reinvigorate older processes
At DATE 2013, Synopsys senior vice president Antun Domic, described how techniques for the latest nodes are being rolled back into mature nodes, all the way to 180nm.
Author Archives: Chris Edwards
Accellera extends verification work to legacy environments
Accellera Systems Initiative has created a working group to look at one of the knottiest problems in IC design: to simplify the job of checking designs when the bits come from so many sources and use languages that were not built for interoperability.
DATE: Silicon Europe plans to build cluster of clusters
Four of the European centers for electronics research and business development have set up a project to try to create a virtual “silicon cluster” that aims ultimately to build a worldwide development network for energy-efficient systems.
DATE: Double patterning and finFETs force flexibility on tools
EDA companies are having to plan for the different ways in which double patterning and finFETs could move into fabs, Antun Domic of Synopsys explains.
Accellera publishes SystemC-AMS 2.0 standard
Accellera Systems Initiative has published the language reference manual for the latest version of its mixed-signal simulation environment based on SystemC. Version 2.0 of SystemC-AMS adds support for more dynamic behaviors in the analog domain.
DATE: The legacy of Mead and Conway
What is the legacy of the most famous textbook in chip design: Carver Mead and Lynn Conway’s Introduction to VLSI Systems? Although some core assumptions were misses and the silicon compiler concept was outcompeted by other ideas, more than 30 years on it remains a key blueprint for IC design.
DATE: Mobile phone to drive Internet of Things MEMS wave
The Internet of Things will drive the next phase for MEMS, greatly helped by a change in the way that the mobile phone interacts with its environment, says Benedetto Vigna of STMicroelectronics.
Flotherm release moves thermal planning to concept stage
Mentor Graphics has release a version of its Flotherm tool that makes it possible to build accurate models of heat flow through electronic systems from initial concepts through to prototypes without the extensive manual rework that these analyses have needed traditionally.
On the way to the system of systems
Experts from Cadence and Synopsys talk about the implications for designers of the rise of ‘systems of systems’.
EDA sets sail in a ‘sea of processors’
The purchase of Tensilica by Cadence Design Systems could prove the way that EDA and multicore-based system design come together.