EDA Alert Update: Bring More Automation Into Mixed-Signal Design
EDA Alert e-Newsletter |
March 4, 2008
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By Ashutosh Mauskar, Vice President of Product and Business Development Magma Design Automation, Custom Design Business Unit
A crisis of critical proportions is emerging as more and more IC designs demand a complex mix of digital and analog functionality to meet cost, size, packaging, power, and price considerations. This is a switch: in the past, most chips have been either digital or analog.
Startup Accepts Challenge Of Sub-45-nm Lithography
As semiconductor manufacturing heads toward 45 nm as the next mainstream node, the 32-nm node is next on the horizon. But the wavelength of the light sources used to print circuit patterns on silicon is stuck at 193 nm for the foreseeable future.
Low-power design is a systemic discipline, so it naturally follows that a design flow intended to address low-power design should also approach the task from a holistic point of view. This has been Synopsys' goal with its new Eclypse platform for IC designers.
Magma Rolls Full-Chip, Mixed-Signal Design/Verification Suite
With the release of its Titan full-chip mixed-signal design, analysis and verification platform, Magma Design Automation serves notice that it's chasing a piece of the analog/mixed-signal market. Because Titan is based on Magma's unified data model, it works seamlessly with Magma's Talus digital IC implementation, FineSim Pro circuit simulation, Quartz DRC and Quartz LVS physical verification products and transistor-level extraction.
In its CoreCreator II, which comprises verification IP and command-line based tools for validating Open Core Protocol (OCP) implementations, the Open Core Protocol International Partnership (OCP-IP) hopes to reduce system-on-a-chip (SoC) design time and risk while improving time to market.
In the latest version of its Q3D Extractor, Ansoft gives designers a window into the capacitance and conductance issues prevalent in lossy dielectrics. Version 8 of the parasitic extraction tool features a capacitance solver that is optimized to exploit available computer memory and perform multiple frequency evaluations and allows users to model infinite ground planes.
Check Out the Latest Views and News from APEC 2008
Electronic Design's APEC 2008 Hotspot has the latest coverage on this year's IEEE APEC tradeshow, including commentary from Analog/Power Editor Don Tuite and product coverage fresh from the event.
In our March 27 cover story, Technology Editor Daniel Harris will look at the state of robotics technology. Which development will we need to see the most before we get a robot in every home?
Less expensive sensors
Better development software
Smarter artificial intelligence
More engineers to design the technology
Government support
Click here to take the poll. Remember to scroll down, the poll is at the bottom of the page.
Voice Over WLAN: The Complete Guide By Michael F. Finneran
Voice Over WLAN: The Complete Guide by Michael F. Finneran is a detailed look at the digital voice over Wi-Fi movement. As you may know, there is growing interest in making phone calls over an enterprise LAN by using 802.11 phones. The book also reviews the relevant fundamentals like radio transmission fundamentals and wireless LAN components and equipment.
What happens when a microcontroller turns on a power FET, sending a current pulse to a motor coil that develops a magnetic field that turns the rotor shaft, advancing a timing belt that drives a pair of nip rolls suspended on bearings in a web-processing operation on a form, fill, and seal machine installed on a potato chip line at a Frito Lay plant in central California? And how can you be sure that the encoders, prox sensors, and other feedback devices you plan to use will accurately see and report every relevant motion, machine state, and process condition?
And will the signals get through the networks fast enough, without being corrupted, giving the controllers time to execute their algorithms as intended? It's a lot to think about, and it only scratches the surface of what many engineers grapple with today. If you happen to be one of them, then the place for you — where you can find answers and meet others with similar concerns — is www.Mechatronic-Design.com.
Backed by some of engineering's top information sources including Machine Design, Electronic Design, Motion System Design, and Power Electronics, Mechatronic-Design.com is the interdisciplinary engineer's desktop, toolbox, library, and lifeline in one easily accessible place.
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