VLSIFacts

Synopsys Acquires Ansys for $35 Billion: A New Era of “Silicon to Systems”

July 17, 2025July 17, 2025 vlsifacts No Comments

July 17, 2025 – In a landmark move that’s reshaping the tech landscape, Synopsys, Inc. (NASDAQ: SNPS) has officially completed its $35 billion acquisition of Ansys, Inc. (NASDAQ: ANSS), creating a powerhouse in electronic design automation (EDA) and simulation software. Announced on January 16, 2024, and finalized today after securing global regulatory approvals, this stock-and-cash…

News

The Mayor of Silicon Valley: Robert Noyce’s Journey from Pig Thief to Tech Titan

July 17, 2025July 16, 2025 vlsifacts No Comments

A small-town Iowa boy, caught red-handed stealing a pig for a college prank, goes on to shape the modern world as the co-inventor of the microchip. This is the story of Robert Noyce, the man dubbed the “Mayor of Silicon Valley.” His life is a whirlwind of brilliance, rebellion, and innovation that transformed Silicon Valley…

Stories

GPUHammer: The RowHammer Attack Targeting NVIDIA GPUs and AI Model Integrity

July 16, 2025July 16, 2025 vlsifacts No Comments

In the rapidly evolving world of artificial intelligence (AI), NVIDIA GPUs have become the backbone of machine learning (ML) and high-performance computing. However, a groundbreaking discovery by researchers at the University of Toronto has unveiled a critical vulnerability: the GPUHammer attack, a novel variant of the RowHammer exploit, capable of silently corrupting AI models by…

Hardware Security, News

How to Design an Efficient Barrel Shifter in Verilog: Step-by-Step Guide

July 15, 2025July 17, 2025 vlsifacts No Comments

In digital design, shifting bits efficiently is crucial for many applications like arithmetic operations, data manipulation, and processor instruction execution. A barrel shifter is a hardware component that shifts data by a variable number of bits in a single clock cycle, making it a vital building block in modern digital systems. If you’re diving into Verilog and…

Digital Electronics, Verilog

Nvidia Becomes First $4 Trillion Company — But Is the Math Broken?

July 10, 2025July 10, 2025 vlsifacts No Comments

In an unprecedented turn of events, Nvidia has officially crossed the $4 trillion market capitalization milestone, becoming the first publicly traded company to do so. While headlines celebrate this achievement with awe, many in the tech and financial sectors are left scratching their heads, wondering: Is this valuation real, or is the math broken? Let’s…

News

Clock Domain Crossing (CDC) Fundamentals: What Every Digital Designer Should Know

July 9, 2025July 9, 2025 vlsifacts No Comments

In today’s complex digital systems, multiple clock domains are the norm rather than the exception. Whether you’re designing an FPGA, ASIC, or SoC, it’s almost guaranteed that different parts of your chip will operate on different clocks. This creates a critical design challenge known as Clock Domain Crossing (CDC). In this first post of our CDC…

Digital Electronics, SoC

How to Design a Clock Divider in Verilog?

July 8, 2025July 17, 2025 vlsifacts No Comments

In digital design, clocks are the heartbeat of your system. But sometimes, the clock frequency you get from your oscillator or PLL is too fast for certain parts of your design. That’s where a clock divider comes in handy. It helps you generate slower clock signals by dividing down a faster input clock. In this blog…

Digital Electronics, Verilog

How to Avoid Latch Inference in Verilog?

July 7, 2025July 7, 2025 vlsifacts No Comments

Writing clean and reliable Verilog code is essential for designing predictable and efficient digital circuits. One common pitfall that many designers encounter is unintended latch inference. This subtle issue can cause your design to behave unexpectedly, leading to timing problems and simulation mismatches. In this post, we’ll explain what latch inference is, why it happens, and…

Digital Electronics, Verilog

Standard‑Cell Libraries 201: Advanced Optimization Techniques for PPA and Silicon Success

July 7, 2025July 7, 2025 vlsifacts No Comments

Standard-Cell Libraries 101 taught you what they are; this 201 guide will teach you how to use them like a silicon pro. From achieving timing closure to shaving off nanowatts of leakage power, advanced knowledge of standard-cell libraries can make the difference between a passable design and a top-tier, power-optimized chip. In this article, we…

Digital Electronics, SoC

Why Clock Tree Synthesis (CTS) Dominates Dynamic Power Consumption in VLSI Designs

July 6, 2025July 4, 2025 vlsifacts No Comments

In VLSI design, power consumption is a critical concern, especially as chips become more complex and operate at higher frequencies. One of the biggest culprits behind dynamic power consumption is the Clock Tree Synthesis (CTS) process. But why does the clock tree consume so much power compared to other parts of the chip? In this post, we’ll…

Digital Electronics, SoC