Predicting Semiconductor Industry Growth: Drop the Crystal Ball and Use the Gompertz Curve

By using the well-tested Gompertz function, semiconductor companies have a way to determine areas in which to focus their attention and investments. Source: EETimes Is there a way to predict the future of semiconductor revenue driven by new products? This was the provocative question Dr. Walden (Wally) Rhines, Chairman and CEO of Mentor Graphics, asked and … Read more

Verification Flow: Panel Gauges Future Flows

This transcript of a panel discussion that took place at DVCon India is chock-full of interesting information and invaluable advice Source: EETimes At DVCon India in September 2016, I moderated a panel titled The Future Verification Flow. Joining me were Ashish Kumar, senior engineering manager at Broadcom India, and Shankar Bhat, verification and validation director at Qualcomm … Read more

Great Ideas, Solid Information Exchange Define DVCon India

Source: EDACafé In its third year, DVCon India 2016 was held in Bangalore September 15-16, hosted in the Leela Palace, as it was in 2015, an island of serenity, peace and comfort in the center of Bangalore. Although I don’t want to repeat myself, my 2015 report included my assessment that “the traffic on Bangalore’s roads … Read more

Digital Data Storage: A Mind-Boggling Growth

In 2010, digital data storage requirements hit the “Zetta” prefix, with only one prefix, the “Yotta,” left available Source: EETimes Until the 19th century — let’s say until the Napoleonic Wars — life on earth proceeded at a slow pace with no significant differences over long periods of time. If you were a farmer in ancient … Read more

DVCon India Kicks-Off Fall Season

Source: EDACafé DVCon India could be considered the official start of the fall season for our industry. It kicks off Thursday, September 15, and runs through Friday, September 16, at The Leela Palace in Bangalore, an elegant hotel and a great place to host a content-rich technical event like this. The two-day event, now in its … Read more

Much Less Efforting Required

Source: EDACafé I had a chat with a friend yesterday who announced: “Less efforting is working for me.” The use of the noun effort as a verb –– efforting –– didn’t send me to my online dictionary to check my grammar or linguistic skills. Instead, it took me back 30-odd years to the early days of … Read more

11 Verification Trends

Source: EDACafé A panel in DAC’s technical program this year continues to yield returns. I looked over my notes the other day and found that the moderator and the five panelists identified a few trends that are outside the scope of the traditional verification as known for many years. Trend #1: Engineering and verification teams are … Read more

A Debate at DAC on Simulation, Emulation and Formal

Source: FormalWorld DAC attendees this year were treated to an informative panel moderated by Adapt-IP’s John Sanguinetti titled, “The Great Simulation/Emulation Faceoff,” a lively debate about whether the simulation/formal verification flow works more effectively than a simulation/emulation flow. Panelists were Stephen Bailey of Mentor Graphics, Dave Kelf from OneSpin, IBM’s Ronny Morad, Frank Schirrmeister at Cadence … Read more

Hardware Emulation to Debug Networking Chips

Source: LightWave Magazine Designing and verifying integrated circuits (ICs) may be the hardest and most difficult piece of the puzzle when it comes to producing electronics devices, whether they are targeted for consumer use or to drive the network. Engineering teams devise all sorts of verification procedures and strategies to ensure first-silicon success. Networking chips are … Read more

The emulator thrives as verification models mushroom

Source: Tech Design Forum Emulation has evolved from infancy at the end of the 1980s to adolescence in the 1990s and finally to maturity in the 21st Century. Yes, emulation has been around for close to 30 years. Who remembers Supersim, the first custom-field programmable gate array (FPGA)-based emulator launched in 1988, pre-dating the rise of Zycad, Quickturn … Read more