QCOM delivers first TSMC 20nm mobile chips!

QCOM delivers first TSMC 20nm mobile chips!
by Daniel Nenni on 11-21-2013 at 3:00 pm

QCOM is now sampling the TSMC 20nm version of its market dominating Gobi LTE modem. The announcement also included a new turbo charged version of their 28nm Snapdragon 800 SoC with a Krait 450 quad core CPU and Adrino 420 GPU. Given the comparable benchmarks between the Intel 22nm SoC and the 28nm SoCs from Apple and QCOM, the new 20nm… Read More


Meeting the Challenges of Designing Internet of Things SoCs with the Right Design Flow and IP

Meeting the Challenges of Designing Internet of Things SoCs with the Right Design Flow and IP
by Daniel Nenni on 11-18-2013 at 7:00 pm

Connecting “things” to the Internet and enabling sensing and remote control, data gathering, transmission, and analysis improves many areas: safety and quality of life, healthcare, manufacturing and service delivery, energy efficiency, and the environment. The concept of the Internet of Things (IoT) is quickly becoming… Read More


A Brief History of eSilicon

A Brief History of eSilicon
by Daniel Nenni on 11-16-2013 at 10:00 pm

eSilicon Corporation was founded in 2000 with Jack Harding as the founding CEO and Seth Neiman of Crosspoint Venture Partners as the first venture investor and outside Board member. They both remain involved in the company today, with Jack continuing as CEO and Seth now serving as Chairman of the Board.

Both Harding and Neiman brought… Read More


Signoff Summit: The Fastest Path to Design Signoff

Signoff Summit: The Fastest Path to Design Signoff
by Daniel Nenni on 11-13-2013 at 8:00 pm

Cadence’s Signoff Summit will be held next week, November 21 at Cadence in San Jose.

This is the first of a series of all-day Signoff Summits from Cadence that focus on the multiple facets of design signoff. This first summit will include keynote addresses plus sessions covering the multiple solution components that comprise… Read More


ASICs for Bitcoin Mining!

ASICs for Bitcoin Mining!
by Daniel Nenni on 11-12-2013 at 8:00 pm

One of the hottest areas for Application Specific Integrated Circuits today is Bitcoin mining. A good friend of mine has a son who is involved in a Bitcoin start-up so we have been discussing this at great length and I will share what I have learned thus far. Coincidently, my wife asked me about Bitcoin during our most recent walk down… Read More


Xilinx Begins Shipping TSMC 20nm FPGAs!

Xilinx Begins Shipping TSMC 20nm FPGAs!
by Daniel Nenni on 11-11-2013 at 10:00 am

Xilinx just announced the shipment of the first TSMC based 20 nm FPGAs, beating Altera to the punch yet again. Xilinx was also the first to ship TSMC 28nm FPGAs and will undoubtedly beat Altera to 14nm which could be the knockout punch we have all been waiting for. The Xilinx UltraScale is a new family of FPGAs that will use 20nm and 16nm… Read More


Can Intel Catch Samsung? Can Anybody Catch Samsung?

Can Intel Catch Samsung? Can Anybody Catch Samsung?
by Daniel Nenni on 11-08-2013 at 5:00 pm

As a professional conference attendee I see a lot of keynotes, some good and some bad. I saw a great one from Kurt Shuler at the SEMICO IP Impact Conference last week. Why this conference was not standing room only I do not know. Kurt’s characterization of the semiconductor industry was well worth the price of admission. I didn’t actually… Read More


TSMC on Semiconductor IP Quality

TSMC on Semiconductor IP Quality
by Daniel Nenni on 11-07-2013 at 9:00 am

It is important to note that the System On Chip (SoC) revolution that is currently driving mobile electronics has one very important enabling technology and that is Semiconductor Intellectual Property. Where would we be without the commercial IP market segment? Computers and phones would still be on our desks for one thing, and… Read More


Can Intel Compete in the IoT?

Can Intel Compete in the IoT?
by Daniel Nenni on 11-05-2013 at 5:00 pm

Kevin Ashton, a British technology pioneer, is credited for the term “The Internet of Things” to describe an ecosystem where the Internet is connected to the physical world via ubiquitous sensors. Simply stated: rather than humans creating content for the internet IoT devices create the content. To be clear, this… Read More


Fabless: The Transformation of the Semiconductor Industry

Fabless: The Transformation of the Semiconductor Industry
by Daniel Nenni on 11-03-2013 at 4:00 pm


As I have mentioned before, Paul McLellan and I are writing a book on the history of the fabless semiconductor industry. There is a preview available HERE, it will initially be sold as an e-book on SemiWiki and put into print early next year. Working with Paul McLellan and Beth Martin on this was an amazing experience. The research,… Read More