Computer History Museum Party!

Computer History Museum Party!
by Daniel Nenni on 10-04-2013 at 3:00 pm

More details are now available for the EDA 50[SUP]th[/SUP] anniversary event on October 16[SUP]th[/SUP]. If you have not been to the museum lately this is a must see event as it is all new. Definitely check out the auction items! Just do not bid against me or it will get very expensive for one of us. I’m watching Storage Wars reruns so… Read More


High-Sigma Standard Cell Optimization!

High-Sigma Standard Cell Optimization!
by Daniel Nenni on 10-03-2013 at 11:00 am

Standard cell optimization is an important problem, because the speed, power, and area of cells has a direct impact speed, power, and area of the whole chip. Typically, standard cell optimization been done with simple in-house local-optimizer scripts. However, these optimizers have had several flaws: they don’t properly capture… Read More


TSMC Awards Berkeley Design Automation

TSMC Awards Berkeley Design Automation
by Daniel Nenni on 10-02-2013 at 11:00 am


One of the highlights of the TSMC 2013 Open Innovation Platform® Forum was the Partner Award Ceremony. TSMC awarded Berkeley Design Automation (BDA) with the TSMC Open Innovation Platform’s Partner of the Year Award 2013 for joint development of 16nm FinFET design infrastructure. I talked with Ravi Subramanian, BDA CEO,… Read More


The US Executive Forum 2013

The US Executive Forum 2013
by Daniel Nenni on 09-26-2013 at 10:00 am

The US Executive Forum hosted by the Global Semiconductor Alliance was held last night at the beautiful Rosewood Sand Hill Hotel in Menlo Park. We all have memorable events in our professional lives and this is one of mine, absolutely. The audience was filled with semiconductor executives from around the world who chatted freely… Read More


Intel 14nm versus Samsung 14nm

Intel 14nm versus Samsung 14nm
by Daniel Nenni on 09-25-2013 at 4:15 am

The legend of Intel being two process nodes ahead of the rest of the industry is quickly coming to an end. To come to terms with this you need to do an apple to apple comparison which is what I will do right here, right now.

First and foremost let’s compare SoC silicon delivery since SoCs are driving the semiconductor industry and will … Read More


A Brief History of Silvaco

A Brief History of Silvaco
by Daniel Nenni on 09-23-2013 at 5:00 pm

Silvaco is the leading supplier of TCAD software, and a major supplier of EDA software for circuit simulation and design of analog, mixed-signal and RF integrated circuits.

The company was founded in 1984 by Dr. Ivan Pesic. The initial product, Utmost, quickly became the industry standard for parameter extraction, device characterization… Read More


Process Variation is a Yield Killer!

Process Variation is a Yield Killer!
by Daniel Nenni on 09-20-2013 at 11:00 am

With the insatiable wafer appetites of the fabless semiconductor companies in the mobile space, yield has never been more critical. The result being better EDA tools every year and this blog highlights one of the many examples. It has been a pleasure writing about Solido Design Automation and seeing them succeed amongst the foundries… Read More


Samsung 28nm Beats Intel 22nm!

Samsung 28nm Beats Intel 22nm!
by Daniel Nenni on 09-18-2013 at 6:00 pm

There was some serious backlash to the “Intel Bay Trail Fail” blog I posted last week, mostly personal attacks by the spoon fed Intel faithful, but there are however some very interesting points made amongst the 30+ comments so be sure and read them when you have a chance.

The Business insider article “The iPhoneRead More


Intel Bay Trail Fail

Intel Bay Trail Fail
by Daniel Nenni on 09-15-2013 at 5:00 pm

Now that the IDF 2013 euphoria is fading I would like to play devil’s advocate and make a case for why Intel is still not ready to compete in the mobile market. It was very clear from the keynotes that Intel is a chip company, always has been, always will be, and that will not get them the market share they need to be relevant in mobile electronics,… Read More


Analog Characterization Environment (ACE)

Analog Characterization Environment (ACE)
by Daniel Nenni on 09-12-2013 at 10:00 am

I’m looking forward to the 2013 TSMC Open Innovation Platform Ecosystem Forum to be held Oct. 1[SUP]st[/SUP] in San Jose. One paper in particular that has my attention is titled, “An Efficient and Accurate Sign-Off Simulation Methodology for High-Performance CMOS Image Sensors,” by Berkeley Design Automation & … Read More