The network-on-chip (NoC) design paradigm is seen as a way of enabling the integration of an exceedingly high number of computational and storage blocks in a single chip. But its adoption and practical implementation face important and unsolved issues related to design methodologies, test strategies, and dedicated CAD tools. The System-on-a-Chip Research Lab at the […]
If one thing has become clear as process geometries have gone below one micron, it is that the traditional development model is broken. It seems only recently that companies were talking about adopting a greater ‘customer focus’, but even the linear sequence of first, finding out what the client wants; second, getting your designers to […]
Alcatel Space supplies complete satellites for use in geostationary and low-earth orbit as well as custom designs for specific missions. These are based on various in-house platforms which support different payloads according to their final use. Fields serviced include telecommunications, observation, meteorology, navigation and science. The company has 5,600 employees, of which around 2,000 work […]
As designs grow larger and process technologies continue to shrink, power becomes an increasingly important design consideration. When designing a printed circuit board (PCB), the power consumed by a device needs to be accurately estimated to develop an appropriate power budget and to design the power supplies and cooling system. The PowerPlay power analysis technology, […]
Considering how complexity has grown over the last 20 years, it is amazing how few dramatic shifts in the design and verification methodology have occurred. When they do happen — mylar to layout tools, gates to RTL, hand-crafted test vectors to testbench automation — they make our work as engineers easier and enable us to […]
If you want to get a clear idea of just what is taxing engineers at any given time, you can do a lot worse than following the trends that emerge before each annual Design Automation Conference (DAC). “And this year, it is pretty clear that there are three things on everyone’s mind: power, system-level design […]
