The CAD Team – Unsung Heroes in a Successful Tapeout

The CAD Team – Unsung Heroes in a Successful Tapeout
by Daniel Nenni on 03-23-2014 at 11:00 am

For most of my career, I worked as a CAD and design flow engineer. In the fall of 2012, I moved to a different role, as an applications and support manager at ClioSoft Inc. In my opinion, this was a very good opportunity for me to work with other CAD engineers and teams.

Having worked with different CAD teams in my career, I have often felt… Read More


Synchronizer Reliability Metrics

Synchronizer Reliability Metrics
by Daniel Nenni on 03-23-2014 at 10:00 am

As an example of the need for real-world reliability metrics, consider a modern automobile. We can already buy a car with parking assistance, collision avoidance, autonomous braking and adaptive cruise control features. These new features depend on video image processing that requires high-performance SoC components where… Read More


Mentor Acquires BDA!

Mentor Acquires BDA!
by Daniel Nenni on 03-23-2014 at 7:00 am

Mentor Graphics acquired Berkeley Design Automation this morning. The details of the deal were unannounced. This is a strong move by Mentor to challenge Cadence and Synopsys in the nanometer analog/mixed-signal market and nanometer memory characterization market, respectively. Mentor not only acquires the technology and… Read More


Cadence is all about Semiconductor IP!

Cadence is all about Semiconductor IP!
by Daniel Nenni on 03-16-2014 at 9:00 am

Cadence continues on its quest to be a top semiconductor IP supplier which is a good thing since the semiconductor world now revolves around IP. Cadence CEO Lip-Bu Tan mentioned IP 14 times during his keynote and he was followed by the president of Imagination Technologies and the CEO of recently acquired Tensilica. I was not afforded… Read More


Designing for Wearables!

Designing for Wearables!
by Daniel Nenni on 03-13-2014 at 5:30 pm

Wearables are going to be a real game changer for the fabless semiconductor ecosystem, absolutely. What other high volume semiconductor market segment has such a low barrier of entry? Speaking of low barrier of entry, the first stop on my Southern California trip last week was Monrovia, the home of Tanner EDA. Tanner is already … Read More


The Infamous Intel FPGA Slide!

The Infamous Intel FPGA Slide!
by Daniel Nenni on 03-11-2014 at 10:30 am

As I have mentioned before, I’m part of the Coleman Research Group so you can rent me by the hour to better understand the semiconductor industry. Most of the conversations are by phone but sometimes I do travel to the East Coast, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and China for face-to-face meetings. Generally the calls are the result of an event … Read More


Internet of Things and the Wearable Market

Internet of Things and the Wearable Market
by Daniel Nenni on 03-09-2014 at 8:00 pm

My wife and I drove to Southern California last week in search of information on the wearable computing market. After stops in Irvine, San Diego, and some play time in La Jolla we returned in time for the CASPA Symposium: “The Wearable Future: Moving Beyond the Hype; the Search for the Holy Grail and Practical Use Cases”Read More


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