How Apple Became a Force in the Semiconductor Industry

How Apple Became a Force in the Semiconductor Industry
by Daniel Nenni on 02-05-2019 at 7:00 am

From our book “Mobile Unleashed”, this is the semiconductor history of Apple computer:

Observed in hindsight after the iPhone, the distant struggles of Apple in 1997 seem strange, almost hard to fathom. Had it not been for the shrewd investment in ARM, Apple may have lacked the cash needed to survive its crisis. However,… Read More


MENTOR at DVCON 2019

MENTOR at DVCON 2019
by Daniel Nenni on 02-04-2019 at 7:00 am

The semiconductor conference season has started out strong and the premier verification gathering is coming up at the end of this month. SemiWiki bloggers, myself included, will be at the conference covering verification so you don’t have to. Verification is consuming more and more of the design cycle so I expect this event to … Read More


Open-Silicon SiFive and Customizable Configurable IP Subsystems

Open-Silicon SiFive and Customizable Configurable IP Subsystems
by Daniel Nenni on 02-01-2019 at 12:00 pm

After 8 SemiWiki years, 4,386 published blogs, and more than 25 million blog views, I can tell you that IP is the most read semiconductor topic, absolutely, and that trend continues. Another correlating trend (from IP Nest) is the semiconductor IP revenue increase in relation to the semiconductor market (minus memory) which more… Read More


Accelerating 5G Design Innovation Through Simulation Workshop

Accelerating 5G Design Innovation Through Simulation Workshop
by Daniel Nenni on 01-22-2019 at 12:00 pm

DesignCon is coming up, kicking off the first of many industry conferences for the year. It’s at the Santa Clara Convention Center which is the best venue in Northern California. Not only is this a semiconductor crowd, it’s also a systems crowd covering chips, boards, and systems. More than 175 companies participate with an expected… Read More


TSMC and Semiconductors 2019 and Beyond

TSMC and Semiconductors 2019 and Beyond
by Daniel Nenni on 01-22-2019 at 7:00 am

TSMC has always been my bellwether and for 2019 I think we need to pay careful attention. Bad economic news has been spreading inside the fabless semiconductor ecosystem (tool and IP budgets have been tightening) but I think it is a bit premature. Let’s take a look at the TSMC 2018 Q4 earnings call and talk more about it in the comments… Read More


CNBC Qualcomm and SemiWiki

CNBC Qualcomm and SemiWiki
by Daniel Nenni on 01-18-2019 at 7:00 am

Over the holidays I did an interview with CNBC on the subject of Qualcomm. The producer had read the History of Qualcomm chapter in our book Mobile Unleashed and wanted to base a 15 minute report on it. The interview lasted 90 minutes but of course only snippets of what I said were used. You can see the recorded report by clicking on the… Read More


The New Intel CEO

The New Intel CEO
by Daniel Nenni on 01-17-2019 at 7:00 am

Interestingly, in some circles I’m known as an “Intel basher” but nothing could be further from the truth. I grew up with Intel and give them full credit for bringing serious compute power to our desktops. My first Intel powered computer was an IBM XT and I have had dozens of Intel based desktops and laptops since then. As a result, I … Read More


IDT Invests in IoT Security

IDT Invests in IoT Security
by Daniel Nenni on 01-15-2019 at 7:00 am

As we are preparing for the “IoT Devices Can Kill and What Chip Makers Need to Do Now” webinar next week, Intrinsic-ID did a nice press release with Integrated Device Technology. IDT is one of the companies I grew up with here in Silicon Valley that pivoted its way to a $6.7B acquisition by Renesas.


IDT is focused on automotive,… Read More


IoT Devices Can Kill and What Chip Makers Need to Do Now

IoT Devices Can Kill and What Chip Makers Need to Do Now
by Daniel Nenni on 01-07-2019 at 12:00 pm

After the onslaught of IoT devices Christmas brought to the masses we really need to talk about security or lack thereof. Do me a favor and count how many IoT devices you have now? Our house IoT count is probably a bit higher than average due to my technology addiction but we are firmly in the double digits and the security breach stories… Read More


Rapid Prototyping ARM Based Designs Webinar

Rapid Prototyping ARM Based Designs Webinar
by Daniel Nenni on 01-07-2019 at 7:00 am

While writing the definitive book on ARM history we could not have imagined a more different exit than the SoftBank acquisition, not even close. It is now very clear why SoftBank acquired ARM for $31B. It is also very clear why alternatives like RISC-V are trending on SemiWiki and will continue to do so, absolutely. No matter what … Read More