Physical Design for Secure Split Manufacturing of ICs

Physical Design for Secure Split Manufacturing of ICs
by Daniel Nenni on 02-19-2019 at 12:00 pm

Semiconductors are not only critical to modern life, semiconductors are critical to National Security. Now that leading edge semiconductor foundries have left the United States one of the more pressing challenges is secure semiconductor manufacturing. This applies to all countries of course so let’s take a look at the International… Read More


Renaming and Refactoring in HDL Code

Renaming and Refactoring in HDL Code
by Daniel Nenni on 02-12-2019 at 12:00 pm

I’ve enjoyed my past discussions with Cristian Amitroaie, the CEO of AMIQ EDA, in which we covered their Design and Verification Tools (DVT) Eclipse Integrated Development Environment (IDE) and their Verissimo SystemVerilog Testbench Linter. Cristian’s descriptions of AMIQ’s products and customers have intrigued me. They… Read More


Semiconductor Security and Sleep Loss

Semiconductor Security and Sleep Loss
by Daniel Nenni on 02-11-2019 at 12:00 pm

One of the semiconductor topics that keeps me up at night is security. We track security related topics on SemiWiki and while the results are encouraging, we still have a very long way to go. Over the last three years we have published 148 security related blogs that have garnered a little more than 400,000 views. Security touches … Read More


A Detailed History of Samsung Semiconductor

A Detailed History of Samsung Semiconductor
by Daniel Nenni on 02-11-2019 at 7:00 am

From our book “Mobile Unleashed”, this is a detailed history of Samsung semiconductor:

Conglomerates are the antithesis of focus, and Samsung is the quintessential chaebol. From humble beginnings in 1938 as a food exporter, Samsung endured the turmoil and aftermath of two major wars while diversifying and expanding.… Read More


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