Design Rule Development Platform @ #54DAC!

Design Rule Development Platform @ #54DAC!
by Daniel Nenni on 06-12-2017 at 12:00 pm

While some might have expected the exponential growth in design rules number and complexity to cool down a little, it looks as if these are only heating up more. The multiplicity of technology nodes, lithography options, , fundamental technology options (Bulk, FD-SOI, FinFET), different process flavors and specific applications,… Read More


Cadence Design Systems @ #54DAC!

Cadence Design Systems @ #54DAC!
by Daniel Nenni on 06-11-2017 at 8:00 am

This year Cadence Design Systems is showcasing system design enablement in their booth, capitalizing on the industry shift from naked chip design to system level chip design. Apple started it with making the chips inside the iProducts as part of the system and now other systems companies are looking to take more control over their… Read More


Mentor a Siemens Business @#54thDAC

Mentor a Siemens Business @#54thDAC
by Daniel Nenni on 06-11-2017 at 7:00 am

This year the Mentor booth will be quite interesting now that they are part of Siemens. I expect zero changes to their DAC presence but we shall see. It will certainly be good to see Wally again. More importantly, I will be afforded the opportunity to talk personally with both Wally Rhines, CEO of Mentor ANDChuck Grindstaff executiveRead More


EDA Powered by Machine Learning panel, 1-on-1 demos, and more!

EDA Powered by Machine Learning panel, 1-on-1 demos, and more!
by Daniel Nenni on 06-07-2017 at 12:00 pm

DAC is upon us again! The Design Automation Conference holds special meaning to me as it was the first technical conference I attended as a semiconductor professional, or professional anything for that matter. That was 33 years ago and I have not missed one since. This year my wife and I both will be walking the DAC floor and it would… Read More


$100M China Investment for FD-SOI Ecosystem!

$100M China Investment for FD-SOI Ecosystem!
by Daniel Nenni on 05-23-2017 at 4:30 am

When GlobalFoundries first briefed me on 22FDX during a trip to Dresden in 2015, China was one of the first things that came to mind. The China semiconductor market was still on 28nm and FinFETs seemed far away for the majority of the Chinese fabless companies. A low cost, low power, low complexity 22nm process with a path to 12nm (12FDX)Read More


The eFPGA Market is Heating Up!

The eFPGA Market is Heating Up!
by Daniel Nenni on 05-22-2017 at 7:00 am

It is nice to see an emerging market successfully emerge for a change. With embedded FPGAs we are way past test chips and are now seeing tape-outs and silicon in a variety of applications. I’m not sure what the current market estimate of eFPGA is just yet but they align nicely with the $30B+ micro controller market. Market studies have… Read More


CEO Interview: Vincent Markus of Menta

CEO Interview: Vincent Markus of Menta
by Daniel Nenni on 05-15-2017 at 7:00 am

What is Menta all about?
Menta was founded to add hardware-programmability within SoCs. We deliver FPGAs in hard IP form that can be readily embedded within an SoC to make certain hardware functions reconfigurable at-will, post-production. This enables customers to dynamically adapt to evolving standards, perform security… Read More


Webinar: Next Generation Design Data & Release Management

Webinar: Next Generation Design Data & Release Management
by Daniel Nenni on 05-12-2017 at 12:00 pm

Design Data Management (DDM) is a bit like insurance. It’s something every semiconductor company has to have, and as a result it’s probably something taken for granted. In order to make their products more useful, the DDM vendors have added more functionality to manage more of the lifecycle of design data.

Dassault’s Synchronicity… Read More


Circuit Design: Anticipate, Analyze, Exploit Variations – Statistical Methods and Optimization

Circuit Design: Anticipate, Analyze, Exploit Variations – Statistical Methods and Optimization
by Daniel Nenni on 05-10-2017 at 12:00 pm

We are happy to publish book reviews, like this one from Dr. Georges Gielen of the KU Leuven in Belgium, for the greater good of the semiconductor ecosystem. So, if you have a semiconductor book you would like to review for fame not fortune let me know.… Read More