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No Slacking! Put Your Sem;colons to Work [Exclamation Mark Goes Here]

I’m still chafing under the impositions imposed by the punctuation police. I speak of those who don the undergarments of authority and stride the corridors of power. Those despicable despots who dictate I can no longer terminate the titles to my columns with exclamation marks, all the time muttering inscrutable incantations to their SEO gods. Fortunately, I’m not bitter. … Read More → "No Slacking! Put Your Sem;colons to Work [Exclamation Mark Goes Here]"

There’s More Than One Way to Become an Engineer (Part 2)

As we discussed in the initial installment of this 2-part extravaganza, some people pursue a predictable path on their way to engineer-hood (where “-hood” comes from the Middle English “-hode,” which itself comes from the Old English “-hād,” meaning “state of being”). Others, like your humble narrator, end up taking a more circuitous route, which may involve Lady Luck finagling the dice in their favor (I … Read More → "There’s More Than One Way to Become an Engineer (Part 2)"

Apple’s iPhone 15 debunks the “full-line” semiconductor supplier myth

From time to time, I’ll get a presentation from a company announcing a new product, usually a new chip, that includes a statement like this:

“We’re the only semiconductor maker with a full line of FPGAs, from the smallest, most cost-efficient devices to the most advanced, leading-edge devices.”

or this:

“We’re the … Read More → "Apple’s iPhone 15 debunks the “full-line” semiconductor supplier myth"

Silvaco’s Fab Technology Co-Optimization (FTCO): From Atoms to Systems

I was just taking a trip down memory lane, remembering how things used to be when I was but a lad. Since the dawn of time, all the way through to the end of the 1960s, for example, electronic circuit diagrams (schematics) were captured by hand using pencil and paper. Similarly, circuit layouts at both the board and silicon chip level were largely handcrafted.

Microchip unveils PIC64 family of RISC-V multicore processor chips for Earth and for space

Literally the day after writing the article about the Microchip PolarFire SoC Discovery Kit based on the company’s PolarFire SoC FPGA, Microchip gave me a preview of two closely related products. The new products, announced last month, are the company’s PIC64GX microcontroller and a development board for this microcontroller called the PIC64GX Curiosity Kit. The PolarFire SoC Discovery Kit discussed in my previous … Read More → "Microchip unveils PIC64 family of RISC-V multicore processor chips for Earth and for space"

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featured blogs
Sep 5, 2024
I just discovered why my wife sees our green watering can as being blue (and why she says I see our blue watering can as being green)...
chalk talks
Vector Funnel Methodology for Power Analysis from Emulation to RTL to Signoff – Synopsys  The shift left methodology can help lower power throughout the electronic design cycle. In this episode of Chalk Talk, William Ruby from Synopsys and Amelia Dalton explore the biggest energy efficiency design challenges facing engineers today, how Synopsys can help solve a variety of energy efficiency design challenges and how the shift left methodology … Read More → "Vector Funnel Methodology for Power Analysis from Emulation to RTL to Signoff – Synopsys"
Accelerating Tapeouts with Synopsys Cloud and AI — Synopsys  In this episode of Chalk Talk, Amelia Dalton and Vikram Bhatia from Synopsys explore how you can accelerate your next tapeout with Synopsys Cloud and AI. They also discuss new enhancements and customer use cases that leverage AI with hybrid cloud deployment scenarios, and how this platform can help CAD managers and engineers reduce … Read More → "Accelerating Tapeouts with Synopsys Cloud and AI — Synopsys"
SLM Silicon.da Introduction — Synopsys  In this episode of Chalk Talk, Amelia Dalton and Guy Cortez from Synopsys investigate how Synopsys’ Silicon.da platform can increase engineering productivity and silicon efficiency while providing the tool scalability needed for today’s semiconductor designs. They also walk through the steps involved in a SLM workflow and examine how this open and extensible platform … Read More → "SLM Silicon.da Introduction — Synopsys"
Shift Left with Calibre — Siemens  In this episode of Chalk Talk, Amelia Dalton and David Abercrombie from Siemens investigate the details of Calibre’s shift-left strategy. They take a closer look at how the tools and techniques in this design tool suite can help reduce signoff iterations and time to tapeout while also increasing design quality. Click here for more … Read More → "Shift Left with Calibre — Siemens"
One Year of Synopsys Cloud: Adoption, Enhancements and Evolution — Synopsys  The adoption of the cloud in the design automation industry has encouraged innovation across the entire semiconductor lifecycle. In this episode of Chalk Talk, Amelia Dalton chats with Vikram Bhatia from Synopsys about how Synopsys is redefining EDA in the Cloud with the industry’s first complete browser-based EDA-as-a-Service cloud platform. They explore the benefits … Read More → "One Year of Synopsys Cloud: Adoption, Enhancements and Evolution — Synopsys"
Automated Benchmark Tuning — Synopsys   Benchmarking is a great way to measure the performance of computing resources, but benchmark tuning can be a very complicated problem to solve. In this episode of Chalk Talk, Nozar Nozarian from Synopsys and Amelia Dalton investigate Synopsys’ Optimizer Studio that combines an evolution search algorithm with a powerful user interface that can … Read More → "Automated Benchmark Tuning — Synopsys"