When we recently looked at software and hardware safety standards, much of the discussion was focused on process-oriented standards like DO-254 and DO-178. But we also mentioned some other standards without going into detail. And some of those operate on the concept of “safety integrity level,” or SIL.

The origin of this concept is IEC 61508, which establishes four SILs, numbered 1-4, with 4 indicating the “safest” level. The determination of SIL appears to be … Read More → "Safe Processing"

In the domain of deciding which embedded functionality should go in hardware and which in software, some architects have a philosophy of keeping as much in software as possible. That’s because software is inherently much more flexible than hardware. Even if you’re using an FPGA, there’s always the, “what if it doesn’t route?” fear. With software, as long as it fits in the allocated code store, you can do anything you want.

This is, of course, part of the motivation of software-define radio (SDR). Years ago, I … Read More → "Keep it in Software"

In this “advanced” age of EDA, it’s not uncommon for new point tools to come along, improving some bottleneck in an otherwise reasonably well-established tool chain. What’s less common is for an entire new tool flow to emerge. And it’s even less common yet for one to emerge all from a single company. And a small one, no less.

And yet that’s what’s happened recently in the analog/custom world. Vivid Engineering, at its roots a design services house, has launched Symica (they haven’ … Read More → "Starting from Scratch"

Big companies have divisions. Big EDA companies have synthesis divisions and design-for-test (DFT) divisions.

Clearly the two have nothing to do with each other. They’re different technologies applied at different times in the flow.

So why in the heck would Oasys, a synthesis company (not big enough yet for divisions) announce DFT support? Sounds like a classic distraction, trying to do too much.

Actually, that’s not how they see it. In fact, since most DFT hardware can be described in RTL, you can presumably do a better job by … Read More → "Is That Any of Your Business?"

Not long ago we looked at how EDA is shaping up in the cloud, including work that Synopsys has been doing to make VCS available for bursty relief usage. I was fortunate enough to attend a demo session to show how what has heretofore been an interesting theoretical discussion could be made concrete.

Synopsys spent a lot of effort on cloud computing at DAC this year, including a cloud partners booth. Various names, both obvious and some not so, were in the booth: Amazon, … Read More → "An Almost-Cloudy San Diego Day"