DAC 2012 Technical Program Highlights

DAC 2012 Technical Program Highlights
by Daniel Nenni on 04-01-2012 at 11:00 pm

The technical program for DAC 2012 has an exceptional quality of technical papers, panels, special sessions, WACI (Wild and Crazy Ideas), WIP (Work In Progress), full day tutorials and user-track. The program is tailored for researchers and developers focused on electronic design automation (EDA) and embedded systems and … Read More


Intel will NOT build ARM chips!

Intel will NOT build ARM chips!
by Daniel Nenni on 04-01-2012 at 6:00 pm

As I mentioned in my previous blog “NVIDIA Claims TSMC 20nm will not Scale?” Jen-Hsun Huang is a very entertaining guy. I always listen to the NVIDIA conference calls because you never know what he will say next. Clearly he is a smart guy so you have to ask yourself why all the rhetoric?

In the Forbes article NVIDIA: Intel should let usRead More


Synopsys Users Group Silicon Valley 2012 Keynote: ARM

Synopsys Users Group Silicon Valley 2012 Keynote: ARM
by Daniel Nenni on 03-28-2012 at 12:49 pm


Keynote #2 at SNUG 2012 was John Cornish, VP Marketing at ARM. Why they sent a marketing person to speak in front of 2,000+ engineers I do not know. To top that, next time they should send a sales person and do a real dog and pony show. To find out more about John I checked his LinkedIn profile which was bare. So enough about John, lets hit … Read More


Synopsys Users Group Silicon Valley 2012 Keynote: Aart de Geus

Synopsys Users Group Silicon Valley 2012 Keynote: Aart de Geus
by Daniel Nenni on 03-27-2012 at 1:26 pm

SNUG Chairman John Busco opened the session with a few words about Aart de Geus, the silver anniversary of Synopsys, and some SNUG statistics. A whopping 2,500 people registered this year! Probably due to the Magma acquisition which is prominently displayed on “Welcome Magma Users” signs and on the flat screens which are everywhere.… Read More


Synopsys Validates EDA360?

Synopsys Validates EDA360?
by Daniel Nenni on 03-26-2012 at 4:26 pm

Before I get too snarky here, I would like to thank Synopsys for the invitation to SNUG 2012 and including me with the professional editors at a 75 minute roundtable discussion with Synopsys CEO Aart de Geus. While Aart is not my favorite big EDA CEO (Wally Rhines of Mentor bought me lunch and returns my email), he is definitely the most… Read More


NVIDIA Claims TSMC 20nm will not Scale?

NVIDIA Claims TSMC 20nm will not Scale?
by Daniel Nenni on 03-25-2012 at 6:00 pm

Interesting article from Joel Hruska on ExtremeTech: Nvidia deeply unhappy with TSMC, claims 22nm essentially worthless . The title is a bit dramatic (poetic license) but the charts are accurate to the degree that 20nm costs will be significantly higher from the start and will continue to be higher throughout production and maturity.… Read More


GLOBALFOUNDRIES Dresden Fab 1

GLOBALFOUNDRIES Dresden Fab 1
by Daniel Nenni on 03-18-2012 at 6:00 pm

Even though my Dresden trip was fraught with fail points it went off without a hitch. Flying over was easy, I connected through London Heathrow, flying back I connected through Frankfurt. The last time I connected through Frankfurt was right after the 9/11 attacks so I had a bit of deja vu. I was in Munich, Heathrow was closed, I was … Read More


My Design Automation and Test in Europe Conference Agenda (DATE 2012)

My Design Automation and Test in Europe Conference Agenda (DATE 2012)
by Daniel Nenni on 03-11-2012 at 7:00 pm


As this blog is being posted I’m on my way to Dresden for the 2012 Design Automation and Test Conference. DATE used to bounce between Munich and Paris, I have attended many times but not in the past couple of years. No excuse really, just busy with other things.
DATE 2012 Highlights in Dresden include E-Mobility and More-than-Moore… Read More


TSMC absolutely did NOT halt 28nm production!

TSMC absolutely did NOT halt 28nm production!
by Daniel Nenni on 03-07-2012 at 6:18 pm

Once again industry professionals get duped! Tabloid journalism runs amok inside the semiconductor ecosystem! As if our industry does not face enough challenges, why are we wasting time on drivel like this? This is a TSMC 28nm wafer by the way and thousands of them are being shipped around the world, believe it.
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Designing ARM Powered High Performance SoCs on 28nm and 20nm!

Designing ARM Powered High Performance SoCs on 28nm and 20nm!
by Daniel Nenni on 03-06-2012 at 9:17 am


Last week I had an interesting meeting with GLOBALFOUNDRIES executives Kevin Meyer and Mojy Chian. It certainly seems that GFI has turned a corner! I will be in Dresden next week for DATE 2012 and will also visit the GFI Fab there. 28nm and 20nm are on track so expect an aggressive implementation plan from GFI this year.… Read More