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OpenROAD: Open-Source EDA from RTL to GDSII

By Paul McLellan | 15 Nov 2019

OpenROAD is a DARPA program to attempt to build a no-human-in-the-loop EDA flow, using only open-source software. The goal is to go from RTL to GDSII fully automatically. In a leading-edge process node. With zero DRC errors. In less than 24 hour...

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ucsd | dod | openroad | andrew kahng | darpa
What Does P≠NP Mean?

By Paul McLellan | 14 Nov 2019

Recently I wrote about computational software and said that EDA algorithms are all "intractable". That was in the post Computational Software. What does intractable mean? If you know anything about algorithms, you might have heard term...

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NP-complete | computational software | np-hard
Die-to-Die Interconnect: The UltraLink D2D PHY IP

By Paul McLellan | 13 Nov 2019

One of the big trends that has been happening somewhat below the radar is the growth of various forms of 3D packaging. I noted this at HOT CHIPS in summer, when a big percentage of the designs were not a single big die, but were multiple die in the s...

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system in package | SiP | chiplet | more than Moore | 3D packaging
The 2019 Jasper User Group

By Paul McLellan | 11 Nov 2019

Last week was the Jasper User Group meeting, the biggest annual gathering of formal verification engineers. This is the 13th meeting. Ziyad recalled the first, held at the TechMart, to which about 15 people attended. This year was the sixth since Cad...

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Jasper User Group | formal | Jasper | JasperGold | Formal verification
OpenTitan: Secure Boot with a Silicon Root of Trust

By Paul McLellan | 8 Nov 2019

At HOTCHIPS last year, Google presented its security processor Titan. You can read lots of details at my post Google's Titan: How They Stop You Slipping a Bogus Server into Their Datacenter . Titan provides a silicon root of trust (RoT) ...

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opentitan | open source hardware | google | open source
Computational Software

By Paul McLellan | 7 Nov 2019

This is the third post in a series on computation in EDA and adjacent markets. The previous two were Computation and the Data Explosion and Computational Hardware . All EDA algorithms are computationally intractable, in that it is impossible to ...

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computational software
Tempus Power Integrity Solution

By Paul McLellan | 6 Nov 2019

One of the challenges in leading-edge nodes today is the resistivity of the interconnect. One day, new interconnect materials such as ruthenium (Ru) might help, but for now, we have copper interconnect, which requires a liner made from a relatively h...

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Tempus | Voltus | signoff
Dead Ends

By Paul McLellan | 5 Nov 2019

Sometimes something comes along that looks like it is a portent of things to come, but then turns out to be a technological dead end. For example, in the 1990s, it seemed that you couldn't go to the mailbox or rent a video without getting an AOL...

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automotive | Breakfast Bytes
IEDM 2019 Preview

By Paul McLellan | 4 Nov 2019

Coming up in the beginning of December is the 65th International Electron Devices Meeting (IEDM). The slightly strange name comes about because this is the 65th, meaning it started in the fifties, long before integrated circuits had been invented. In...

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IEDM
Computational Hardware

By Paul McLellan | 1 Nov 2019

This is the second part of a three-part series of posts on computation. The first part, Computation and the Data Explosion , appeared yesterday. Nothing is really as complex as a modern SoC. The AMD Zen2 chiplet contains nearly 4 billion transistors...

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computational software | computation
Computation and the Data Explosion

By Paul McLellan | 31 Oct 2019

Everywhere you look these days, you get told that there is a data explosion going on. A Boeing 787 generates half-a-terabyte of data per flight. Facebook has 2.5 billion users. Five billion videos are watched on YouTube every day. This impacts the s...

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computational software | computation
Implementing Automotive Radar on Tensilica Processors

By Paul McLellan | 30 Oct 2019

The big controversy about sensors in autonomous driving is whether lidar is essential. Radar has improved significantly in resolution and so I like to phrase the question as to whether radar is getting better faster than lidar is getting cheaper. Tod...

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automotive | radar | fmcw | ADAS
Photonics Summit and Workshop 2019

By Paul McLellan | 29 Oct 2019

Once again Cadence and Lumerical are hosting the two-day Photonics Summit and Workshop. The two events are not interdependent, you can attend either or both. However, they do have a common theme: The Convergence of RF and Photonics. 5G, and espe...

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curvycore | Lumerical | silicon photonics | Virtuoso | photonics
Level-4 Autonomous Trucks Are on the Road Already

By Paul McLellan | 28 Oct 2019

I already wrote two posts about the recent automotive day at the Computer History Museum, Silicon Valley Reinvents the Wheel and The California DMV on Autonomy. Today it is the turn of trucks. Given that a truck costs about $200-2...

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automotive | trucks | dmv | autonomous vehicles
The California DMV on Autonomous Cars

By Paul McLellan | 25 Oct 2019

Earlier in the week I gave an overview of Silicon Valley Reinvents the Wheel . That was largely about the factors that would make autonomous vehicle manufacturers successful, and how accepting the general public are of the technology. But here in Cali...

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automotive | dmv | ADAS
40 Years Ago, "Spreadsheet" Didn't Mean Excel, It Meant VisiCalc

By Paul McLellan | 24 Oct 2019

I like to find specific events that change the trajectory of the semiconductor industry, such as June 29, 2007, when the iPhone was announced. Today is the 40th anniversary of another such event. Forty years ago today, on October 24, 1979, Dan B...

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Apple | visicalc
Silicon Valley Reinvents the Wheel

By Paul McLellan | 23 Oct 2019

Recently the Western Automotive Journalists, or WAJ (I had no idea that was a thing), held their annual Silicon Valley Reinvents the Wheel event at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View. Outside in the parking lot was a broad selection of auto...

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automotive | lidar | radar | ADAS | autonomous vehicles
Arm TechCon: A Look at 2020 and 2030

By Paul McLellan | 22 Oct 2019

The last day of Arm TechCon opened with the return to the event of Charlie Miller. I already covered that in my post Charlie Miller: Stopping Cars Being Hacked Instead of Hacking Them . For my first post about Arm TechCon this year, see my post Arm Te...

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automotive | greg yeric | ARM Techcon | matterhorn | HPC | mobile | ARM
EDPS 2019: Efficient Design and Manufacturing

By Paul McLellan | 21 Oct 2019

EDPS, the Electronic Design Process Symposium, took place on October 3 and 4 at SEMI HQ in Milpitas. The theme was Efficient Design and Manufacturing. Camille Kokozaki The meeting opened with a moment of silence for Camille Kokozaki, who had helped ...

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electronic design process symposium | EDPS | ARM
Book: VLSI Design Methodology Development

By Paul McLellan | 18 Oct 2019

There are lots of books on EDA, but many of them are academic texts about the algorithms used inside EDA tools. Rather fewer of them are written for people doing real designs. A recently published book firmly targeted at the practical needs of ...

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tom dillinger | book
Samsung: In SAFE Hands

By Paul McLellan | 17 Oct 2019

Today is Samsung's SAFE Forum 2019 at their Samsung@First building on San Jose's First Street. SAFE stands for Samsung Advanced Foundry Ecosystem. Since Samsung Foundry really only has two events per year, the other being the Samsung F...

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samsung foundry | samsung foundry safe | 5lpe | 5nm | safe
Charlie Miller: Stopping Cars Being Hacked Instead of Hacking Them

By Paul McLellan | 16 Oct 2019

The last day of Arm TechCon opened with Charlie Miller talking about Experiences with and Views on the Future of Driverless Cars Technology. Charlie has appeared in Breakfast Bytes before in Automotive Security: A Hacker's Eye View. He, alon...

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security | automotive | ARM Techcon
Machine Learning in JasperGold

By Paul McLellan | 15 Oct 2019

When I was in Tel Aviv for CDNLive Israel, I sat down with Ziyad Hanna to discuss what Cadence calls "Smart Formal Technologies". This is using deep learning techniques to improve formal verification with the JasperGold Formal Verification ...

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Jasper User Group | Jasper
Arm TechCon: The Keynotes

By Paul McLellan | 14 Oct 2019

Simon Segars opened Arm TechCon with a new look, having discovered that real men have beards. This is the 15th Arm TechCon. In this post I'm going to focus on the new things that Arm announced during the keynotes. Simon Segars Back when TechCon s...

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automotive | ARM Techcon | Simon Segars | cloud | mobile | ARM
Sunday Brunch Video for 13th October 2019

By Paul McLellan | 13 Oct 2019

https://youtu.be/8BM28qwHyUk Made at Arm TechCon (camera Randy Smith) Monday: What Is Quantum Supremacy? Tuesday: It's Ada Lovelace Day Today Wednesday: The First Woman to Receive the Kaufman Award Thursday: The Economist on RISC-V and ...

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