IC Design Corner
Technical Editor Mike Demler's IC Design Corner blog provides analysis and discussion on the engineering challenges of IC design and applications, from full custom to field-programmable systems on a chip, EDA tools and methodologies, and advanced semiconductor processes. Follow Mike on Twitter: @MikeDemler.
One EDA/T&M couple is "in a relationship", while another is getting married.
Synopsys and Munich-based test and measurement instrument supplier Rohde & Schwarz have announced that they are collaborating on solutions for the design and verification of LTE and LTE-Advanced chipsets to be used in mobile handsets and wireless basestations. Synopsys will be providing a 3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Project) standard-compliant LTE library for the System Studio and SPW alg ...... Read More
Comments (1)Carbon Design Systems and MIPS Collaborate on Virtual Platforms
Carbon Design Systems and MIPS Technologies have announced that they are collaborating to create and distribute virtual platform models of MIPS processor IP (intellectual property) cores. By creating the processor models from the production RTL (register transfer level) code for each MIPS core, Carbon is promising 100% cycle accuracy. MIPS will integrate the models and virtual platforms with thei ...... Read More
Comments (0)Embedded Systems Conference wrapup
I had a summary report of the Silicon Valley Embedded Systems Conference (May 2nd - 7th) nearly ready to publish earlier this week, but due to a WordPress failure my entire post went poof! So apologies for the lag, but I think that ESC had such a wealth of content that it is worth revisiting… even if a bit late. For the EDN Editorial staff, ESC events kicked off in a big way with the annual ...... Read More
Comments (2)Springsoft's Certitude checks the checker for RTL designs
EDA vendor Springsoft has announced enhancements to their Certitude functional qualification system, a set of tools that you can use to check the robustness of the checking mechanisms and stimuli in your functional verification testbenches for IP modules and SoC (system-on-chip) designs. Certitude provides technology that you can use to automate analysis of the effectiveness of your HDL simu ...... Read More
Comments (1)SoC Virtual Conference goes LIVE on Thursday morning, May-12th
Tomorrow morning I’ll be online early (8:15 Pacific Daylight Savings Time) to kickoff the UBM Electronics/EETimes System on a Chip virtual conference. I think that the website mistakenly has EST times listed, so please be aware that we will actually start at 11:15 Eastern Daylight Savings time. If you haven’t already registered, I encourage you to do so by clicking on the prece ...... Read More
Comments (0)Nvidia ups the price for baseband processor startups.
Nvidia has announced their intent to acquire 9-year old UK-based Icera for $367 million in cash. This announcement comes on the tail of Broadcom’s acquisition of Beceem, for $316 million, in November last year. While Beceem had established itself as a leader in WiMAX 4G modems, and had released a dual-mode WiMAX/LTE design, Icera’s claim to fame is a “100% software” bas ...... Read More
Comments (3)Cadence adds virtual models and FPGA prototyping to System Development Suite
Cadence made quite the big splash entrance as a first-time exhibitor at the Silicon Valley Embedded Systems Conference on Tuesday, holding a perhaps unprecedented (certainly for EDA) press conference on the exhibit floor to announce what they described as “A Breakthrough in System Development“. The event started with a long digression into the world of tablet mania and mobile a ...... Read More
Comments (1)Mentor Graphics adds capabilities to GNU toolchain in Embedded Sourcery CodeBench
Mentor Graphics Corporation has announced a new Embedded SourceryTM CodeBench product, providing embedded system developers with an enhanced IDE (integrated development environment) that is based on the Code Sourcery tools which the company acquired last year. The Sourcery CodeBench tool suite includes the Eclipse-based IDE and C/C++ development tools and compilers, and the GNU tool chain which c ...... Read More
Comments (0)New processors and software add to floating-point DSP family
Texas Instruments has announced the addition of a new single-core device to their TMS320C66x family of floating-point DSPs. The TMS320C6671 DSP increases clock speed to 1.25GHz, and is pin and software compatible with other members of the TMS320C66x family, providing you with an upgrade path from single to dual, quad and 8-core configurations. The company also has added several new features and en ...... Read More
Comments (1)Benchmarking Digital Signal Processors, do FPGAs cost more?
(This post is a sidebar to my 04/21/2011 EDN cover story: “DSPs Power the Race to 4G“) When you speak to vendors about DSPs, they may refer you to their BDTI benchmarks and certification. BDTI (Berkeley Design Technology) founder and President Jeff Bier explains that the company provides independent, detailed hands-on technical evaluations and engineering services, focusing on DSP-in ...... Read More
Comments (2)Kilopass develops embedded multi-time programmable non-volatile memory in 40nm logic CMOS
Kilopass Technology is a silicon IP vendor that offers non-volatile memory based on antifuse technology. The antifuse works by breaking down a silicon oxide barrier to set the state of memory bits in a 2-transistor cell; which, up until now, has been a one-time process. While limited in size and programmability compared to Flash memory, the Kilopass technology has the advantage of being implemente ...... Read More
Comments (0)More growth in the Android ecosystem with launch of MIPS developer community
MIPS has announced the launch of Developer.MIPS.com, a site “tailored to the needs of software developers working with the AndroidTM platform, Linux operating system and other applications for MIPS-BasedTM hardware“. In launching the new online community, MIPS joins a growing list of processor IP and device manufacturers with sites dedicated to supporting Android development on their ...... Read More
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