Blog Review: Feb. 10
By Ed Sperling
Synopsys’ Frank Schirrmeister has created a Hitchhiker’s Guide to the ESL Galaxy. It’s an interesting and creative way to look at a very complex subject. The only flaw in the analogy is that at the end of that book/movie the computer spits out the wrong answer—or at least the wrong question. (“What is 6 x 9?”)
What does memory really mean? For starters, it’s different for a hardware engineer than a software engineers. But even in the software realm it can mean different things. Mentor’s Colin Walls shines a spotlight on the inconsistencies.
Gabe Moretti takes a discerning look at Synopsys’ pending acquisitions of VaST and CoWare and concludes the EDA giant has sewn up the system-level prototyping market. It’s certainly starting to look that way. The list of competitors is evaporating before our eyes.
Does verification training work better in pictures? How about cartoons? Check out Srivatsa Vasudevan’s blog at Synopsys about how to use a RAL test to go from block to top. This is sort of like Dilbert for the verification world.
Cadence’s Ran Avinun takes a look at the best languages for modeling and verification. His conclusion: Pick whatever works best for your purposes.
Is an EDA startup delusional or visionary? Harry Gries still isn’t sure, but at least he admits it.
Team Specman is back with a look at how to add arbitrary metrics to your metric driven flow. This is great info for the e aficionados.
Is Globalfoundries a real threat to TSMC? You wouldn’t know it from the upbeat mood at TSMC, but Daniel Nenni raises some interesting questions.
And how important is social media to your job? Do you tweet while you work or simply whistle? Cadence’s Richard Goering gathers the collective wisdom of a panel of experts at DesignCon.
Tags: Cadence, ESL, Mentor Graphics, Synopsys