EE Times Current

In this episode, we’ll explore Siemens EDA’s innovative approach to AI and dive into Calibre-specific topics. We’ll discuss when to use Calibre, when it might not be the best fit, and how to leverage it to maximize productivity and designer effectiveness—all without compromising on quality.AI is everywhere these days, from space exploration to dating apps, and Siemens has been a pioneer in this space, investing in AI long before it became a trend. So, let’s dive in and explore how Siemens EDA is shaping the future of design with AI.

Brad Aimone from Sandia National Labs works with the world’s biggest neuromorphic platforms. In this episode of Brains and Machines, he talks to Sunny Bains of University College London about how this allows him to think deeply about what they’re good for. Discussion follows with Giulia D’Angelo from the Czech Technical University in Prague and Professor Ralph Etienne-Cummings of Johns Hopkins University.

Professor Barbara Webb from the University of Edinburgh in Scotland​ uses physical robots to validate neural mechanisms in crickets, ants, and bees. In this episode of Brains and Machines, she talks to Dr. Sunny Bains of University College London about her work. Discussion follows with Dr. Giulia D’Angelo from the Czech Technical University in Prague and Professor Ralph Etienne-Cummings of Johns Hopkins University.

Today we’re talking about something that’s top-of-mind for a lot of you: closing the reliability gaps in increasingly complex analog and mixed-signal IC designs—and doing it earlier, faster, and more systematically.As designs become more heterogeneous and integration of IP blocks more intricate, traditional simulation and ERC tools often aren’t enough. They’re reactive by nature, catching issues too late in the flow—when rework is costly, and design intent is harder to trace.That’s why “shift-left” verification has become more than just a buzzword. It’s a strategic necessity. And today’s conversa...

Professor Gert Cauwenberghs has been working toward building brain-scale systems for decades. At the University of California San Diego, he’s now one of the leaders of the Neuromorphic Commons hub, also known as Thor, which will give the wider community access to neuromorphic hardware and simulators. In this episode of Brains and Machines, he talks to Dr. Sunny Bains of University College London about his approach to making systems that use minimal energy, are highly interconnected at all levels, and are surprisingly flexible. Discussion follows with Dr. Giulia D’Angelo from the Czech Technical University in Prague and Prof...

Professor Gordon Cheng builds humanoid robots that can feel their environment using artificial skin. In this episode of Brains and Machines, he talks to Dr. Sunny Bains of University College London about how the skin was designed, how it improves safety and why neuromorphic engineering will be important for machine autonomy. Discussion follows with Dr. Giulia D’Angelo from the Czech Technical University in Prague and Professor Ralph Etienne-Cummings of Johns Hopkins University.

Professor Gordon Cheng builds humanoid robots that can feel their environment using artificial skin. In this episode of Brains and Machines, he talks to Dr. Sunny Bains of University College London about how the skin was designed, how it improves safety, and why neuromorphic engineering will be important for machine autonomy. Discussion follows with Dr. Giulia D’Angelo from the Czech Technical University in Prague and Professor Ralph Etienne-Cummings of Johns Hopkins University.

Dr. Charlotte Frenkel from the Technical University of Delft set records with a low-power neuromorphic chip she designed as part of her Ph.D. In this episode of Brains and Machines, she talks to Dr. Sunny Bains of University College London about what she has learned about building simplicity into chips and integrity into benchmarks. Discussion follows with Dr. Giulia D’Angelo from the Czech Technical University in Prague and Professor Ralph Etienne-Cummings of Johns Hopkins University.

The semiconductor industry is undergoing a shift with the rapid adoption of multi-die design, driven by the promise of improved power, performance, and area (PPA). But with innovation comes complexity, and one of the biggest challenges is ensuring silicon reliability and health through effective multi-die testing.In this episode, we dive deep into the world of multi-die design for test: what it means, how it differs from traditional monolithic design testing, and why it’s critical for the future of semiconductor manufacturing. Learn how testing spans from individual dies to multiple dies to die-to-die links, and why si...

Dharmendra Modha’s TrueNorth chip added the word neuromorphic to the technorati lexicon back in 2014. In this episode of Brains and Machines, he talks to Sunny Bains of University College London about how that project led to his work on NorthPole and the axiomatic approach he took to design. 

In this episode of Brains and Machines, Dr. Terry Sejnowski talks to Dr. Sunny Bains of the University College London about how information flows both ways between neuroscience and engineered intelligence, proposes a new way of looking at memory and considers the Hopfield-Hinton Nobel Prize. 

Dr. Jennifer Hasler of Georgia Tech is best known for her work with field programmable analog arrays (FPAAs). In this episode of Brains and Machines, she talks about the importance of, and progress in, analog electronics for AI with Dr. Sunny Bains of the University College London. Discussion follows with Dr .Giulia D’Angelo from the Czech Technical University in Prague and Professor Ralph Etienne-Cummings of Johns Hopkins University.

Dr. Tony Lewis, CTO of BrainChip, and four other key scientists talk to Dr. Sunny Bains of University College London. They discuss their business strategy, their temporal event-based neural network (TENN) and the next iteration of the Akida chip. Discussion follows with Dr. Giulia D’Angelo from the Czech Technical University in Prague and Prof. Ralph Etienne-Cummings of Johns Hopkins University.

In this episode of Brains and Machines, emeritus Prof. Rodney Brooks of Massachusetts Institute of Technology, currently CTO of Robust AI, talks about bottom-up and top-down approaches to robotics and AI with Dr. Sunny Bains of University College London. Discussion follows with Dr. Giulia D’Angelo from the Czech Technical University in Prague and Prof Ralph Etienne-Cummings of Johns Hopkins University.

Many IC design teams struggle with tight deadlines and limited resources. The industry is constantly searching for new ways to improve efficiency without compromising design quality. While they might find tools that run incrementally faster, the real gains come from adjustments to the design flow – including what we call ‘shift-left’ strategies that pull signoff-quality verification into the design implementation stage. Join our host, Eric Singer, for a compelling interview with David Abercrombie, Product Management Director of Artificial Intelligence & Licensing Applications at Siemens EDA.

Dr. Katie Schuman of the University of Tennessee explains the advantages of evolutionary approaches in neural processing to Dr. Sunny Bains of University College London. Discussion follows with Dr. Giulia D’Angelo from the Czech Technical University in Prague and Professor Ralph Etienne-Cummings of Johns Hopkins University.

Dr. Sunny Bains talks to four key figures at Innatera, a spin out from the University of Delft in the Netherlands. They are hoping that their latest spiking neural network chip will become AI of choice for people working on sensor applications. Discussion follows with Dr. Giulia D’Angelo from the Czech Technical University in Prague and Prof. Ralph Etienne-Cummings of Johns Hopkins University.

Renesas, known for its industry-leading MCU and MPU portfolio, has a comprehensive power management portfolio addressing existing and emerging applications. This compelling interview covers how Renesas is addressing power challenges in the automotive and industrial sectors, including solutions for xEV traction inverters, zonal control, and portable power stations. Renesas’ approach emphasizes complete, scalable designs and rapid prototyping, facilitating faster time to market for manufacturers.

UCL’s Dr. Sunny Bains talks parallelism, neural net efficiency and risk taking with Caltech’s Prof. Carver Mead. Now an emeritus professor, Mead has been instrumental in the development of chip design, and was one of the first employees of Noyce and Moore, which later became Intel. He’s also one of the founders of the field of neuromorphic engineering. Discussion follows with Dr Giulia D’Angelo from the Czech Technical University in Prague and Prof. Ralph Etienne-Cummings of Johns Hopkins University.

There is a lot of hype in the industry around AI, but behind the hype there is the reality. That reality is that AI really is impacting virtually every aspect of semiconductor design. However, its not as simple as taking general purpose AI solutions and hoping they work for EDA, the risks are too high and when dealing with parts per billion (or trillion) in acceptable errors, hallucinations are not acceptable. What is needed are Verifiable AI solutions that deliver results that users can trust and that reduce the overall resources needed to complete a task. At Siemens EDA...