Industry Expert Blogs

Perhaps best known for its pioneers, cowboys, shootouts, gamblers, and gunslingers, the “Wild West” was named for the lawlessness of the territories west of the Mississippi River. Semiconductor development—although often pushing the bleeding edge of technology with dramatic advances in a wide range of applications ranging from communications and computing to healthcare, transportation, and beyond—is still not the Wild West. Sure, there are plenty of maverick architects and designers doing extremely innovative work, but even these “pioneers” must operate within industry boundaries. Some of these boundaries are due to technical limitations or business considerations. Many others, however, are imposed or necessitated by standards. As an IC developer, many different types of standards must be kept in mind, both for interoperability with other chips and to meet the expectations of your end customers.

Many Dimensions of Standards

I have in mind quite a broad definition of standards. People sometimes say “formal standards” when referring to those produced by standardization bodies such as IEEE, ISO, IEC, ANSI, JEDEC, and Accellera. These organizations have a well-defined process to develop and approve standards covering all aspects of electrical and computer engineering, and beyond into the general industry. There are also many associations focused on specific standards, including HTML, PCI, USB, and the RISC-V processor instruction set architecture (ISA).

We often hear the term “de facto standards” to describe widely adopted technologies that are either controlled by no one or are owned by individual companies rather than industry groups. The Intel x86 and ARM processor ISAs, Adobe PDF, and Microsoft Office file formats are common examples. Whatever the source, you need to know the standards required for your target product and ensure that any IP you integrate into your IC, and any EDA tools you use, comply with the relevant specifications.

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