Designs are getting bigger, verification runs longer, and every stage of development and deployment provides valuable data — if you can find it.

The amount of data that could be kept for every design is gargantuan, but even that may not be enough these days as lifecycle management, continuous verification, regulatory requirements, and globalization add to the data that needs to be stored.

But data has no value if it cannot…

New approaches emerge as demand for improved power and performance overwhelm design tools.

The semiconductor ecosystem is at a turning point for how to best architect the CPU based on the explosion of data, the increased usage of AI, and the need for differentiation and customization in leading-edge applications.

In the past, much of this would have been accomplished by moving to the next process node. But with the benefits from…

As localized processors become more powerful, what works best where?

Increasing amounts of processing are being done on the edge, but how the balance will change between what’s computed in the cloud versus the edge remains unclear. The answer may depend as much on the value of data and other commercial reasons as on technical limitations.

The pendulum has been swinging between doing all processing in the cloud to doing…

The IC industry is struggling with blurring lines between different disciplines as chips are more tightly integrated with software in packages and systems.

Complexity in hardware design is spilling over to other disciplines, including software, manufacturing, and new materials, creating issues for how to model more data at multiple abstraction levels.

Challenges are growing around which abstraction level to use for a particular stage of the…

What does it take to get a new language, tool, or methodology established in the semiconductor industry? Disruption has rarely worked.

Progress in semiconductors has been one of the most successful engineering feats, and the industry has ridden an exponential curve longer than anything else in history. It is also a highly conservative industry that has pushed away many disruptive changes in favor of small incremental changes…

The open nature of the RISC-V means anyone can design a custom processor - moving the verification task from a few specialist suppliers to all SoC developers. This article looks at the industrial-grade verification and open methodology to support verification of an open-source CV32E40P core.

The amount of time, money and effort it takes to design a system-on-chip (SoC) means it is not surprising when engineering teams want to get it right first time. This long-held ideal…

RCR Wireless News – “Well, technically...” Podcast featuring Katherine (Kat) Hsu from Imperas Software.

Imperas Software's Senior Account Manager Katherine (Kat) Hsu discusses the biggest trends in the semiconductor industry, why consumers should care about AI processors and the technical challenges that open standard RISC-V helps…

Mind-boggling number of options emerge, but which is best often isn’t clear.

The guideposts for designing chips are disappearing or becoming less relevant. While engineers today have many more options for customizing a design, they have little direction about what works best for specific applications or what the return on investment will be for those efforts.
For chip architects, this is proving to be an embarrassment of riches.…

Companies that invest in their employees’ education often get rewarded with more productive and happier workers.

Continuous education is essential for engineers, but many companies don’t recognize the value or they are unwilling to provide the necessary resources.
This should be a line of questioning before every new hire makes the decision about where they want to work, because it not only affects their future career, but…