On-Chip Clock Generation beyond Phase Locked Loop

On-Chip Clock Generation beyond Phase Locked Loop
by Daniel Nenni on 03-07-2014 at 8:00 am

Inside a today’s typical VLSI system, there are millions of electrical signals. They make the system perform what it is designed to do. Among those, the most important one is the clock signal. From an operational perspective, clock is the timekeeper of the electrical world inside the chip/system. From a structural perspective,… Read More


Sir Hossein Yassaie, CEO of Imagination Technologies, Keynote!

Sir Hossein Yassaie, CEO of Imagination Technologies, Keynote!
by Daniel Nenni on 03-02-2014 at 12:00 pm

Semiconductor IP is a focus of this year’s Design Automation conference and I’m excited to see a keynote by one of the leaders of this market segment. Even more interesting, Dr. Hossein Yassaie was knighted by the Queen in Her Majesty’s New Year Honours 2013. The award was given in recognition of his services to technology… Read More


Effect of Inductance on Interconnect

Effect of Inductance on Interconnect
by Daniel Nenni on 03-02-2014 at 11:00 am

In previous design generations interconnect could safely be modeled by extraction using just R and C values. Parasitics in interconnect are important because they can affect the operating frequency or phase error in circuits like VCO’s. The need to model parasitics properly in wires is just as applicable in PA’s, LNA’s and for… Read More


Celebrating 50 Billion ARM Powered Chips!

Celebrating 50 Billion ARM Powered Chips!
by Daniel Nenni on 02-27-2014 at 12:00 pm

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In case you have not seen it yet there is a website named 50BillionChips where you can follow the journey of ARM. This goes quite well with the brief history of ARM we wrote last year in preparation for our bookFabless: The Transformation of the Semiconductor Industry. ARM was a big part of that transformation of course.… Read More


A Brief History of STMicroelectronics

A Brief History of STMicroelectronics
by Daniel Nenni on 02-27-2014 at 10:00 am

STMicroelectronics is the result of the 1987 marriage between famed semiconductor companies SGS Microelettronica of Italy and Thomson-CSF Semiconductor of France. You may recognize the name SGS-Thomson which was replaced by STMicroelectronics in 1998. After the merger SGS-Thomson was ranked as number 14 in the top 20 semiconductor… Read More


A Brief History of Kandou Bus

A Brief History of Kandou Bus
by Daniel Nenni on 02-23-2014 at 10:45 am

Kandou Logo

Kandou Bus uses a novel form of spatial coding to transmit data between wired chips. The main idea is to introduce correlations between the signals sent on the interface, and choose the correlations judiciously to lower the power consumption, increase the speed, and lower the footprint. It is a generalization of differential … Read More


Verifying DRC Decks and Design Rule Specifications

Verifying DRC Decks and Design Rule Specifications
by Daniel Nenni on 02-19-2014 at 8:00 am

DRVerify is part of the iDRM design rule compiler platform from Sage DA, something that I have been personally involved with for the past three years. DRVerify is mainly used to verify third party design rule check (DRC) decks and ensure that they correctly, completely and accurately represent the design rule specification. In… Read More


Dr. Cliff Hou, TSMC VP of R&D, Keynote

Dr. Cliff Hou, TSMC VP of R&D, Keynote
by Daniel Nenni on 02-16-2014 at 9:00 am

This will be my 30[SUP]th[/SUP] Design Automation Conference. I know this because my first DAC was the same year I got married and forgetting how many years you have been married can cost you half your stuff. I have known Cliff Hou for half of that time and he has proven to be one of the most humble and honorable men I have worked with, definitely.… Read More


Intel 14nm Delayed Again?

Intel 14nm Delayed Again?
by Daniel Nenni on 02-12-2014 at 9:00 am

From the sources in which I confirmed the last Intel 14nm delay, I just confirmed another. Intel 14nm is STILL having yield problems. Remember Intel bragging about 14nm being a full node and deriding TSMC because 16nm is “just” 20nm with FinFETs added? Judging by the graph, clearly FinFETs are not the problem here. … Read More


Has LinkedIn Jumped the Shark?

Has LinkedIn Jumped the Shark?
by Daniel Nenni on 02-08-2014 at 11:00 am

LinkedIn is without a doubt the number one social network for semiconductor professionals. Based on my experience, the big LinkedIn boom came with the massive unemployment during the Great Recession of 2009. In my estimate, unemployment was 12%+ at the high point in Silicon Valley and resumes clogged the internet with LinkedIn… Read More