As I may have mentioned on occasion, when it comes to quantum computing, one of my favorite quotes comes from the Night Watch tome of Terry Pratchett Discworld series. The quote in question reads as follows: “It’s very hard to talk quantum using a language originally designed to tell other monkeys where the ripe fruit is.” You can’ … Read More → "Affordable Rack-Mount Quantum Computers Are Here!"
Rising complexity drove the creation of ever-more-powerful tools for electronic design. When circuit board and IC layouts escaped the bounds of pencil, paper, and manual dexterity, CAD tools from Applicon, Calma, and Computervision appeared. When polygon representations no longer sufficed as the first gate arrays appeared, CAE tools from Daisy, Mentor, and Valid appeared. These CAE companies attempted to provide all-in-one design suites for ICs and circuit … Read More → "A Brief and Personal History of EDA, Part 4: Cadence, Synopsys, and Mentor Graphics – The EDA Era"
I am happy to announce that longtime friend of the show Alissa Fitzgerald is my guest this week! Alissa and I discuss MEMS product development, the details of AMFitzgerald’s unique innovation process, and why recent developments in thin-film PZT MEMS chips will change the … Read More → "Thin-Film Piezoelectric MEMS: A New Day for Exciting MEMS Applications"
Are you involved in developing SoCs? Are you banging your head against the wall, desperately trying to determine why you aren’t obtaining the performance promised by the providers of your processor, interconnect, and DDR memory controller IPs? Do I have good news for you? (Spoiler alert. The answer to the last question is a resounding “Yes!”)
In many ways … Read More → "Understanding and Optimizing SoC Hardware Performance"
The awesome new AMD devices to which I’ve just been introduced have sparked a trip down memory lane (I know you’re surprised, because I pride myself on my laser-like focus that prevents me from wandering off into the weeds). I remember the 1970s and early 1980s when we thought the simple programmable logic devices (PLDs) of the time were so cool. Those were heady days … Read More → "AMD Rocks with New Versal Gen 2 AI Edge SoC FPGAs"
By the end of the 1970s, the leading CAD companies, including Calma, Applicon, and Computervision had started to lose interest in the electronics market and turned to mechanical CAD. Quite possibly, this lack of interest reflected the demand by electronics and semiconductor companies for something more than efficient drafting systems. The drawings produced by CAD systems were fully capable of producing photomasks for circuit boards and ICs, … Read More → "A Brief and Personal History of EDA, Part 3: Daisy, Valid, and Mentor Graphics – The CAE Era"
