Industry Expert Blogs

SoC design continues to challenge semiconductor and system companies in their pursuit to create a better user experience for a wide range of products. Given this, I was pleasantly surprised to see that two of the “Ten technologies that will change the world in 2013,” according to EETimes (December 2012 issue) were SoC-related.

One is virtual SoC prototypes and the other is IP subsystems. These technologies are right up there in the top 10 list with heterogeneous networks, gesture recognition and 3D printing (which by the way I struggle to ‘wrap my head around’ because this is a real Star Trek replicator!) Both virtual SoC prototypes and IP subsystems are making such lists because they are now necessary pieces in the SoC design puzzle. The complexity of SoCs designed in 28nm process technology and below are becoming too unwieldy for design teams to manage as more and more functionality is being crammed onto the die. Note that that 3D FinFET transistors also made the top 10 list (14nm and below).

Click here to read more ...