TSMC and Dr. Morris Chang!

TSMC and Dr. Morris Chang!
by Daniel Nenni on 09-05-2011 at 6:14 pm

While I was in Taiwan last month battling a Super Typhoon, Morris Chang was in Silicon Valley picking up his IEEE Medal of Honor. Gordon Moore, Andrew Grove, and Robert Noyce all have medals. The other winners, including 10 Nobel prize recipients, are listed HERE. An updated wiki on Dr. Morris Chang is located HERE.

The 12+ hour plane… Read More


Nanometer Circuit Verification Forum

Nanometer Circuit Verification Forum
by Daniel Nenni on 08-29-2011 at 2:33 pm

Verifying circuits on advanced process nodes has always been difficult, and it’s no easier with today’s nanometer CMOS processes. There’s a great paradox in nanometer circuit design and verification. Designers achieve their greatest differentiation when they implement analog, mixed-signal, RF and custom … Read More


Semiconductor Yield @ 28nm HKMG!

Semiconductor Yield @ 28nm HKMG!
by Daniel Nenni on 08-28-2011 at 4:00 pm

Whether you use a gate-first or gate-last High-k Metal Gate implementation, yield will be your #1 concern at 28nm, which makes variation analysis and verification a big challenge. One of the consulting projects I have been working on with the foundries and top fabless semiconductor companies is High-Sigma Monte Carlo (HSMC) … Read More


Cadence Verification IP Technical Seminar!

Cadence Verification IP Technical Seminar!
by Daniel Nenni on 08-22-2011 at 11:43 am

According to trusted sources it costs upwards of $50M to design a 40nm SoC down to the GDS. Semiconductor IP is a fast growing part of that equation and functional verification of that IP is critical. Hardware complexity growth continues to follow Moore’s Law but verification complexity is even more challenging. In fact, IP verification… Read More


WikiLeaks: Methodics vs IC Manage

WikiLeaks: Methodics vs IC Manage
by Daniel Nenni on 08-21-2011 at 4:00 pm

Human nature never ceases to amaze me. I understand the recent economic turmoil and looming National Debt has thrown us for a loop but please, let us all get some perspective here and in the words of Rodney King, “Can we all get along?”

A clever little scumbag recently registered the domain danielnenni.com and is now hawking event … Read More


TSMC 28nm and 20nm Update!

TSMC 28nm and 20nm Update!
by Daniel Nenni on 08-15-2011 at 3:00 pm

First, I would like to congratulate Samsung on their first 20nm test chip press release. Some will say it is a foundry rookie mistake since real foundries do not discuss test chip information openly. I like it because it tells us that Samsung is 6-9 months BEHIND the number one foundry in the world on the 20nm (gate-last HKMG) process… Read More


Current State of Tablet Products

Current State of Tablet Products
by Daniel Nenni on 08-12-2011 at 12:57 pm

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Tablets are hot items these days. There is exuberance about the speed of application processors, size of the internal memory, capabilities of the operating systems, WiFi or 3G/4G connectivity, quality of the display, cameras megapixels, battery life, tablet weight, etc. All of these features are very important, no question… Read More


Reducing SoC Power Consumption using Integrated Voltage Regulators

Reducing SoC Power Consumption using Integrated Voltage Regulators
by Daniel Nenni on 08-10-2011 at 5:00 pm

Last month I had the pleasure of meeting Mr Wonyoung Kim, a PhD candidate from Harvard University. Like many candidates, Wonyoung is shopping his thesis for capital in hopes of starting a semiconductor IP company. Here is a brief summary of the technology, please provide appropriate feedback and let’s see if we can get him… Read More


Samsung to Acquire AMD?

Samsung to Acquire AMD?
by Daniel Nenni on 08-07-2011 at 4:00 pm


Don’t get me wrong, I’m a big fan of AMD, I buy AMD based products whenever possible to prevent an innovation stifling Intel monopoly. Unfortunately Silicon Valley coffee house conversations continue to paint a bleak picture for AMD, even with a recent stock surge on better than expected revenue guidance for the rest of 2011. I’m… Read More


CDNS EDA360 is DEAD!

CDNS EDA360 is DEAD!
by Daniel Nenni on 07-30-2011 at 3:00 am

Hard to believe EDA360, the Cadence Blueprint toBattle ‘Profitability Gap’; Counters Semiconductor Industry’s Greatest Threat!, is DEAD at the ripe old age of one. As you may have already read John Bruggeman left Cadence after the company conference call last week. The formal announcement should go out on Monday after the SEC… Read More