Cadence CEO Keynotes DVCON 2014!

Cadence CEO Keynotes DVCON 2014!
by Daniel Nenni on 12-10-2013 at 8:00 pm


Next year’s DVCon attendees can expect to learn about both practical solutions to their pressing problems that can be applied today and also receive a preview of the technologies that will affect them in the near future. DVCON is March 3-6, 2014 @ the DoubleTree Hotel in San Jose.

KEYNOTE: An Executive View of Trends and TechnologiesRead More


Equipment Spending Down 2013; Expect 33% Growth in 2014

Equipment Spending Down 2013; Expect 33% Growth in 2014
by Daniel Nenni on 12-08-2013 at 10:10 am

Fab Equip Spending

SEMI’s World Fab Forecast report, published in November, predicts that fab equipment spending will decline about -9 percent (US$32.5 billion) in 2013 (including new, used and in-house manufactured equipment). Setting aside the used 300mm equipment Globalfoundries acquired from Promos at the beginning of 2013 (NT$20-30 … Read More


A Brief History of ARM Holdings

A Brief History of ARM Holdings
by Daniel Nenni on 12-07-2013 at 12:00 pm

It was on 26th April 1985 (at 3pm to be precise) that the very first ARM silicon sprang in to life – it was a 25K transistor design implemented in 3um technology with just 2 layers of metal.

However back then the “A” in ARM stood for Acorn – ARM the company had yet to be formed. Acorn sold computers to schools and so cost… Read More


SPICE Development Roadmap 2013!

SPICE Development Roadmap 2013!
by Daniel Nenni on 12-04-2013 at 11:00 am


The MOS-AK/GSA Modeling Working Group, a global compact modeling standardization forum, delivered its annual autumn compact modeling workshop on Sept. 20, 2013 as an integral part of the ESSDERC/ESSCIRC Conference in Bucharest (RO). The event received full sponsorship from leading industrial partners including Agilent… Read More


Intel Comes Clean on 14nm Yield!

Intel Comes Clean on 14nm Yield!
by Daniel Nenni on 12-04-2013 at 8:00 am

Hopefully this blog will result in a meaningful discussion on truth and transparency, and how Intel can do better in regards to both. Take a close look at the manufacturing slides presented by William Holt, Executive Vice President General Manager, Intel Technology and Manufacturing Group. You can see the slide deck HERE. Slide… Read More


Webinar: Parasitic Debugging made easy!

Webinar: Parasitic Debugging made easy!
by Daniel Nenni on 12-03-2013 at 3:00 pm

We cordially invite you to attend this webinar and learn how to quickly debug post layout designs. Concept Engineering is a privately held company based in Freiburg, Germany. It was, founded in 1990 to develop and market innovative schematic generation and viewing technology for use with logic synthesis, verification, test … Read More


My iPhone 5s is having hot flashes!

My iPhone 5s is having hot flashes!
by Daniel Nenni on 11-29-2013 at 1:53 pm

It is bad enough my wife is “flashing” but now my phone is 100+ degrees too!?!?!? It seems that an application is getting stuck and the SoC is thrashing. Which application I do not know, you need to use the old process of elimination method to figure this one out. Doing a hard reboot (turning your phone off and on) is the quick fix, you can… Read More


Intel Bay Trail Fail II

Intel Bay Trail Fail II
by Daniel Nenni on 11-27-2013 at 9:00 am

To follow up my Bay Trail Fail blog which predicted that the leading edge Intel 22nm mobile SoC offering would fail, I must admit I was wrong. I did not think Bay Trail would see any traction in the tablet market but, as it turns out, Intel will ship 40M of those parts in 2014. Did you notice I said ship and not sell? Read on……… … Read More


Semiconductor Process Development: A View from the Trenches at IEDM

Semiconductor Process Development: A View from the Trenches at IEDM
by Daniel Nenni on 11-25-2013 at 10:00 pm

There is always a lot of posturing and pontificating when semiconductor executives talk about the future of process development. They are fighting an air war of perception and investor expectations, so naturally want to make sure they have plenty to brag about. But, as we pointed out recently with Intel’s problems at 14nm, moving… Read More


Front-End Design Summit: Physically Aware Design

Front-End Design Summit: Physically Aware Design
by Daniel Nenni on 11-24-2013 at 12:00 pm

Save closure time and boost performance by incorporating knowledge of physically aware design early into your front-end design implementation flow

With the adoption of advanced process nodes, design closure is becoming increasingly difficult due to the lack of convergence between the front end and the back end of the register-transfer… Read More