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EDACafe Editorial

Archive for November, 2013

Hybrid ATPG/LBIST: Mentor says 1 + 1 = 1.3

Thursday, November 21st, 2013

Mentor Graphics has just posted a very interesting white paper on their website that discusses the advantages of combining ATPG and logic BIST to produce improved test coverage: Improve Logic Test with a Hybrid ATPG/BIST Solution, by Ron Press and Vidya Neerkundar.

The paper’s a good read for several reasons. There’s a brief, but accessible explanation of both ATPG and logic BIST, and then an equally accessible explanation of the benefits of combining the two to create a hybrid test approach.

This week, I spoke with Mentor’s Steve Pateras and Gene Forte about the paper and asked why, at this late date in the development of ATPG [automatic test pattern generation] and BIST [built-in self test], the paper starts with basic explanations of these two seemingly well-established test strategies.

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Tags: ATPG, Gene Forte, Logic BIST, Mentor Graphics, Ron Press, Steve Pateras, TestKompress, Vidya Neerkundar
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Innovation: does Voltus prove CDNS still has what it takes?

Thursday, November 14th, 2013

Cadence is announcing this week a new product for power integrity and signoff called Voltus, which the company says solves several problems simultaneously.

Per a phone call with Cadence Director KT Moore, one of the challenges in power signoff is that it takes a lot of time: “When designers look at analyzing power for the block, chip or package, current analysis techniques can literally take days, so designers are looking for a faster solution. What Cadence believes to be true about Voltus is that this product is 10x faster than any existing solutions available today. Because of that, we know the customers are very excited.”

“The other issue with power signoff,” Moore said, “is that it needs to be accurate. You can make a product a thousand times faster, but it’s of little value if it’s not accurate. With Voltus, however, we’re maintaining the same accuracy compared, for instance, to Spice or whatever the customer’s expectation reference is. But there’s an additional level of accuracy in Voltus that’s also important.

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Tags: Cadence, Encounter, IDT, KT Moore, Palladium, power signoff, Sigrity, Tempus, Virtuoso, Voltus
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MonsterTablet: bragging rights for Panasonic, Microsoft & Dassault

Thursday, November 14th, 2013

This week in Las Vegas, Dassault Systèmes hosted one of their many global confabs where customers consult with each other about the joys of using Dassault’s product lines. At this particular conference, Panasonic’s newly launched ToughPad enjoyed special focus, featuring heavily in keynotes and on the exhibition hall floor.

The 20″ ToughPad is among the largest tablets in the history of humankind, weighing in at around 6 pounds, and comes in two versions. One’s targeted at sales folks who want to haul around a huge screen for maximizing presentation punch (and for watching movies while they’re waiting at the gate). That one sells for around $5K. The other version’s a full-on workstation, good for designing stuff, repairing helicopters (virtually), and spinning things around and around in Dassault’s 3D design software until you’re dizzy with delight. This more-powerful, badasser version will set you back around $7.5K or more, but surely it’s worth the price.

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Tags: Dassault Systemes, Las Vegas, Microsoft, Panasonic, ToughPad
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