TSMC to Build first US Fab in Arizona!

TSMC to Build first US Fab in Arizona!
by Daniel Nenni on 11-15-2020 at 10:00 am

TSMC North America SemiWiki

Well, it’s official, the TSMC Board of Directors approved an investment to establish a wholly-owned subsidiary in Arizona with a paid-in capital of $3.5 billion. As history shows the investment may be more than that but $3.5B is a great starting point. This is being discussed in the SemiWiki Forum  and I have been gathering inside… Read More


CEO Interview: Dr. Chouki Aktouf of Defacto

CEO Interview: Dr. Chouki Aktouf of Defacto
by Daniel Nenni on 11-13-2020 at 6:00 am

Defacto CEO Interview Chouki Aktouf

“For more than 18 years, we never stopped innovating at Defacto. We are aware of EDA Mantra “Innovate or Die!”. Innovation is in our DNA, and we never stopped adding new automated capabilities to the SoC design community to help facing complexity and cost challenges, which increase every year.”

Before founding Defacto… Read More


Prototyping with the Latest and Greatest Xilinx FPGAs

Prototyping with the Latest and Greatest Xilinx FPGAs
by Daniel Nenni on 11-11-2020 at 6:00 am

Prototyping with the Latest and Greatest Xilinx FPGAs

I was reading the S2C press release announcing their new FPGA prototyping platform based on the Xilinx UltraScale+ VU19P FPGA, and how the new FPGA will accelerate billion gate FPGA prototyping, and I was struck by the stunning implications of this announcement.  Not that billion gate SoC designs can now be prototyped with FPGAs,… Read More


Embedded Systems Development Flow

Embedded Systems Development Flow
by Daniel Nenni on 11-09-2020 at 6:00 am

Webinar SoC 1

Earlier this year. as part of my coverage of the virtual Design Automation Conference (DAC), I interviewed Agnisys CEO and founder Anupam Bakshi. He talked about the new products they introduced at the show and filled me in on the history of the company and his own background. Recently, Anupam presented the webinar “System Development… Read More


AMD and Intel Update with Xilinx

AMD and Intel Update with Xilinx
by Daniel Nenni on 11-06-2020 at 10:00 am

AMD Xilinx Acquisition

The AMD acquisition of Xilinx is certainly big news but as an insider looking at the media coverage I think there are a few more points to consider. While most of the coverage has been positive there will always be negatives and we can look at that as well.

Intel acquired Altera in 2015 for $16.7B at a 50% premium which was a major disruption… Read More


The Gold Standard for Electromagnetic Analysis

The Gold Standard for Electromagnetic Analysis
by Daniel Nenni on 11-04-2020 at 6:00 am

Example of a multi level board analyzed by HFSS

Ansys HFSS has been the world’s trusted gold standard for  electromagnetic analysis for many years. As chip designs get bigger and more complex many users report that they’re extremely happy with the gold standard accuracy of HFSS but wish it would run faster. Fortunately Ansys has introduced many capabilities to HFSS over the… Read More


Are TSMC and Intel Partnering in Arizona?

Are TSMC and Intel Partnering in Arizona?
by Daniel Nenni on 11-01-2020 at 10:00 am

TSMC Career Opporunitites

After months of back and forth TSMC finally announced plans to build a fab in Arizona. The announcement was not made in the press or on the most recent investor call but on LinkedIn. A sign of the times I guess but since they need to hire a bunch of semiconductor people it was more than appropriate.

“We’re delighted to catch up with you … Read More


Nvidia Arm Acquisition Talking Points

Nvidia Arm Acquisition Talking Points
by Daniel Nenni on 10-30-2020 at 10:00 am

Nvidia Arm Acquisition 2020

Before founding SemiWiki I competed with Arm on many different levels throughout my career and I have had various business dealings with them since. SemiWiki also published the definitive book on Arm: “Mobile Unleashed” which goes deep into the history of Arm and the top SoC companies (Qualcomm, Apple, and Samsung).… Read More


Mentor User2User Virtual Event 2020!

Mentor User2User Virtual Event 2020!
by Daniel Nenni on 10-30-2020 at 6:00 am

banner u2u2020 virtual digital 500x350px 5

Now that we have gone virtual, life has never been easier, for me anyway. There are literally events every day beamed into my living room. The question is which should I attend? The answer is I should attend the ones with the most customer-based content, which is what User2User is all about. I will miss attending this one live as it was… Read More


ASIC and FPGA Design and Verification Trends 2020

ASIC and FPGA Design and Verification Trends 2020
by Daniel Nenni on 10-28-2020 at 6:00 am

2020 Wilson Report Verification ASIC FPGA

Harry Foster and I started in semiconductors at the same time so it was great to reminisce while talking about the latest Wilson Research Group Functional Verification Trend reports. Before I get into the reports lets talk about Harry who is a verification superstar:

Harry is Chief Scientist Verification for the Design Verification… Read More