VLSI chip design 2013: Latest trends from concept to product

When it comes semiconductor chip design, there is one task, which is nearly a pure software; that is verification. India is attractive destination for finding resources on VLSI chip design verification talent. Around 70% of Indian VLSI design Services Companies are engaged in verification services. Verification engineers are not really so much concerned or exposed to physical design of the chip such as whether it is 14nm, double pattering, FinFET, EUV and any such physical design challenges of chip fabrication. Verification engineers focus on verifying digital and analog and mixed signal function including complex graphic processor to simple logic gate functionality. It all about programming and testing the code in the most popular language called VHDL. Another software-type expertise evolved in recent years is virtual prototyping. Virtual prototype gives the system design engineers virtual silicon equivalent before the chip gets taped out from the fab. So that the embedded systems developer can start checking the code with virtual prototype at the early stage of product design and so that the overall product development time can be reduced. This writer recently interacted with three senior executives of World’s number one EDA software vendor Synopsys to get views on latest trends in chip design. A. Interaction with Mr. Manoj Gandhi, Senior Vice President and Gener...