Alphawave IP and the Evolution of the ASIC Business

Alphawave IP and the Evolution of the ASIC Business
by Daniel Nenni on 03-21-2022 at 6:00 am

Alphawave IP OpenFive

Alphawave IP has agreed to acquire OpenFive, a SiFive business unit (formerly Open-Silicon) for $210m in cash. Having spent many years in the ASIC business which included working with Open-Silicon, Alphawave, and OpenFive here is my perspective on the acquisition:

This acquisition accomplishes two things: First it trims down… Read More


CEO Interview: Aki Fujimura of D2S

CEO Interview: Aki Fujimura of D2S
by Daniel Nenni on 03-18-2022 at 6:00 am

ESD Alliance D2S Blog Post Image 1 1

Curvilinear Design Primer for Design, Packaging Communities

This interview was done by Bob Smith, Executive Director, ESD Alliance, a SEMI Technology Community.

Previously, Fujimura served as CTO at Cadence Design Systems and returned to Cadence for the second time through the acquisition of Simplex Solutions where he was… Read More


Webinar: From Glass Break Models to Person Detection Systems, Deploying Low-Power Edge AI for Smart Home Security

Webinar: From Glass Break Models to Person Detection Systems, Deploying Low-Power Edge AI for Smart Home Security
by Daniel Nenni on 03-13-2022 at 10:00 am

Untitled design

Moving deep learning from the cloud to the edge is the holy grail when it comes to deploying highly accurate, low-power applications. Market demand for edge AI continues to grow globally as new hardware and software solutions are now more readily available, enabling any sized company to easily implement deep learning solutions… Read More


5G Network Activation Update

5G Network Activation Update
by Daniel Nenni on 03-13-2022 at 10:00 am

ANSYS 5G Kerfuffle

As a pilot and semiconductor professional I was a bit shocked to get an Airworthiness Directive due to the 5G rollout. Airworthiness Directives are legally enforceable regulations issued by the FAA to correct an unsafe condition in a product:

“Airworthiness Directive (AD) 2021-23-12 was issued for all fleets in December… Read More


CEO Interview: Frankwell Lin, Chairman and CEO of Andes Technology

CEO Interview: Frankwell Lin, Chairman and CEO of Andes Technology
by Daniel Nenni on 03-11-2022 at 6:00 am

Frankwell Jyh Ming Lin

Frankwell Lin, Chairman of Andes Technology, started his career being as application engineer in United Microelectronics Corporation (UMC) while UMC was an IDM with its own chip products, he experienced engineering, product planning, sales, and marketing jobs with various product lines in UMC. In 1995, after four years working… Read More


How Intel will Beat Samsung

How Intel will Beat Samsung
by Daniel Nenni on 03-09-2022 at 6:00 am

Intel vs Samsung

Now that Intel is back in the foundry business, and with the Tower Semiconductor acquisition they are definitely back in the foundry business, Samsung will be the biggest foundry loser here.

You can break the IDM foundry business into two parts: First, and foremost, the NOT TSMC Business. Second is the the Better PPA (Power/Performance,… Read More


Prototype enables new synergy – how Artosyn helps their customers succeed

Prototype enables new synergy – how Artosyn helps their customers succeed
by Daniel Nenni on 03-08-2022 at 6:00 am

LS Dual

Artosyn Microelectronics, a leading provider of AI SoCs for drones and other sophisticated applications finds itself at the intersection of hardware architecture and software development. “Our customers are advancing the state of AI programming every day,” said Shen Sha, Senior R&D Manager of Artosyn’s AI Chip Department.… Read More


Integrating Materials Solutions with Alex Yoon of Intermolecular

Integrating Materials Solutions with Alex Yoon of Intermolecular
by Daniel Nenni on 03-04-2022 at 6:00 am

6 Alex Yoon headshots small

I had a follow-on discussion with Alex Yoon from our podcast last year.  He is as a Head of Strategic and Emerging Technologies and partnerships at Intermolecular, part of EMD electronics.

Prior to joining EMD electronics, he was Senior Technical Director at Lam Research, led activities in emerging memory and novel materials … Read More


Intel Evolution of Transistor Innovation

Intel Evolution of Transistor Innovation
by Daniel Nenni on 03-03-2022 at 10:00 am

Intel Transistor Innovations 1971

Intel recently released an exceptional video providing an insightful chronology of MOS transistor technology.  Evolution of Transistor Innovation is a five-minute audiovisual adventure, spanning 50 years of Moore’s Law.  Some of the highlights are summarized below, with a few screen shot captures – the full video is definitely… Read More


Sondrel explains the 10 steps to model and design a complex SoC

Sondrel explains the 10 steps to model and design a complex SoC
by Daniel Nenni on 03-02-2022 at 10:00 am

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Sondrel just released a position paper on how to model and design a complex ASIC. We have been following Sondrel for the past year and I have found their collateral to be excellent. Here is the position paper overview, a description of the new Sondrel modeling tool, the 10 steps, and of course a link to download the paper:

Overview
It… Read More