My #53DAC Must See List!

My #53DAC Must See List!
by Daniel Nenni on 06-04-2016 at 7:00 am

It may be hard to believe but this happens to be my thirty third Design Automation Conference. Where does the time go? Three of my kids are out of college and the last one is getting close. That is where my time has gone. The conference itself started in 1964 but my first one was in 1984 in Albuquerque, New Mexico. In fact, that was the year… Read More


iDRM – A Complete Design Rule Development System

iDRM – A Complete Design Rule Development System
by Daniel Nenni on 06-02-2016 at 12:00 pm

Design rules are at the heart of the interface between the foundry and semiconductor designers, which makes them so critical. Traditionally, design rules and DRC decks have been developed manually with no or little automation. Design rule definitions are written using WORD or other general purpose office tools, and DRC decks… Read More


TSMC Update at #53DAC!

TSMC Update at #53DAC!
by Daniel Nenni on 05-31-2016 at 4:00 pm

TSMC is having an interesting year for sure. I was at the TSMC Symposium in Hsinchu last week and everyone was talking about the new 16FFC process. Silicon is out and it is exceeding expectations leading some people (me included) to believe that TSMC 16FFC will be the next TSMC 28nm in regards to popularity. To be clear, 16FFC is currently… Read More


Bringing Human-Like Intelligent Vision Processing to Low-Power Embedded Systems

Bringing Human-Like Intelligent Vision Processing to Low-Power Embedded Systems
by Daniel Nenni on 05-31-2016 at 12:00 pm

Semiconductor IP has always been one of the most interesting topics on SemiWiki. Since going online in January of 2011 there have been a total of 592 IP related blogs that have been viewed 2,581,118 times. 79 of those blogs have been about CEVA, the number one licensor of digital signal processing (DSP) IP for a wide range of power-efficient,… Read More


TSMC Leads Again with 3-D Packaging!

TSMC Leads Again with 3-D Packaging!
by Daniel Nenni on 05-24-2016 at 4:00 pm

Continuing to find new ways to extend Moore’s Law, the foundry and technology leader is ready to show off its wafer level system integration prowess with two scalable platforms targeting key growth markets.

CoWoS® (Chip-On-Wafer-On-Substrate) goes after high-performance applications, providing the highest bandwidth and… Read More


What Does an MPW and a Pizza Have in Common?

What Does an MPW and a Pizza Have in Common?
by Daniel Nenni on 05-23-2016 at 12:00 pm

Design starts are critical to the growth of the semiconductor industry so enabling them is a common theme on SemiWiki. One thing we have not covered in detail is multi-project wafer services (MPW) which is the equivalent of ride sharing through the initial mask and wafer process. Larger semiconductor companies already do this … Read More


Stop FinFET Design Variation @ #53DAC and get a free book!

Stop FinFET Design Variation @ #53DAC and get a free book!
by Daniel Nenni on 05-20-2016 at 7:00 am

If you plan on visiting Solido (the world leader in EDA software for variation-aware design of integrated circuits) at the Design Automation Conference next month for a demonstration of Variation Designer, register online now and get an autographed copy of “Mobile Unleashed”. Such a deal!

Solido Variation Designer is used by… Read More


The ASIC Business Model is Critical for the DIY and Maker Movements!

The ASIC Business Model is Critical for the DIY and Maker Movements!
by Daniel Nenni on 05-17-2016 at 12:00 pm

If you look back at the beginning of the ASIC business you will see that it was really a critical time in the semiconductor industry. It all began in the 1980s which coincidentally is when I started my career in Silicon Valley. General purpose integrated circuits ruled the market, forcing system designers to cobble together off-the-shelf… Read More


TSMC and Solido on Variation-Aware Design of Memory and Standard Cell at Advanced Process Nodes

TSMC and Solido on Variation-Aware Design of Memory and Standard Cell at Advanced Process Nodes
by Daniel Nenni on 05-10-2016 at 12:00 pm

Being that TSMC and Solido are founding members of SemiWiki, you should be able find out everything you ever wanted to know on their respective landing pages. If not, just ask a question in the SemiWiki forum and I can assure you it will be answered in great detail. And here are some other interesting 2015 factoids from Solido:… Read More


Is Tesla Making Their Own CPUs?

Is Tesla Making Their Own CPUs?
by Daniel Nenni on 05-03-2016 at 4:00 pm

One of the benefits of administering a leading semiconductor design enablement portal is that I get to see the traffic patterns then try and figure out what’s behind them. For example, a Cupertino domain has been reading all of our automotive content very thoroughly. We also get hits by Google.com, Amazon.com, and dozens of other… Read More