Students Should Attend DAC in SFO

Students Should Attend DAC in SFO
by Daniel Payne on 03-06-2018 at 12:00 pm

On LinkedIn I have some 2,116 connections and many of those are students looking to enter the field of EDA, IP or semiconductor design. What a wonderful opportunity these students have by attending the 55th annual DAC in San Francisco this summer from June 24-28. Technical sessions, keynote speeches, exhibitors, networking, … Read More


PCB Design in the Cloud

PCB Design in the Cloud
by Daniel Payne on 02-28-2018 at 12:00 pm

I remember meeting John Durbetaki at Intel where we both worked in 1980, it was an exciting time and something called the Personal Computer had just been introduced by companies like Commodore, Apple and Radio Shack (yes, Radio Shack). IBM was rather late to the party with their PC in 1981, however when IBM entered the market then … Read More


Developing Affordable IoT Systems

Developing Affordable IoT Systems
by Daniel Payne on 02-26-2018 at 12:00 pm

The IoT market opportunities in segments like wearables, vehicles, home, cities and industrial are all growing thanks to the combination of semiconductors, sensors, software and systems technology. New hardware designs for IoT edge devices appear on a daily basis, and the companies behind these new products can often be start-ups… Read More


SoC Design Management with Git

SoC Design Management with Git
by Daniel Payne on 02-21-2018 at 12:00 pm

Linux creator Linus Torvalds lives in Oregon not too far from me and he also created the popular Git system for Design Management (DM) in 2004 that is now used by many software developers. So what makes Git so attractive as a DM tool?

  • Feature-branch workflow
  • Easy to switch context between features
  • New features can be created orderly
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Why It’s A Good Idea to Embed PVT Monitoring IP in SoCs

Why It’s A Good Idea to Embed PVT Monitoring IP in SoCs
by Daniel Payne on 02-16-2018 at 7:00 am

At Intel back in the late 1970’s we wanted to know what process corner each DRAM chip and wafer was trending at so we included a handful of test transistors in the scribe lines between the active die. Having test transistors meant that we could do a quick electrical test at wafer probe time to measure the P and N channel transistor… Read More


In-System Automotive Test

In-System Automotive Test
by Daniel Payne on 02-01-2018 at 12:00 pm

I’ve been driving cars since 1975 and in the early days we had simplistic gauges for feedback like: Speed, Fuel level, Oil level, RPM. Back then when you popped the hood of a car you could see through the engine compartment onto the ground below, however with today’s cars the engine compartments are crammed with tubes,… Read More


Automotive Mega-trends, Safety and Requirements Management

Automotive Mega-trends, Safety and Requirements Management
by Daniel Payne on 01-30-2018 at 12:00 pm

I come from a car-centric family where my father actually bought and sold over 300 vehicles in his lifetime, so automotive mega-trends pique my interest. A new conference called Semiconductors ISO 26262 held it’s first annual event last month, meeting in Munich with guest speakers from some impressive companies like: … Read More


Designing an SoC for 3D TV Without using the Funny Glasses

Designing an SoC for 3D TV Without using the Funny Glasses
by Daniel Payne on 01-24-2018 at 12:00 pm

In the blur of activities at DAC last year I visited the Mentor booth a few times and had just a few minutes to glance at a 3D TV display that didn’t require me to wear any funny glasses, kind of novel I thought at the time because I’ve read that the market of 3D TV sets is being hampered by requiring viewers to wear glasses. The… Read More


Moore’s Law Drives Foundries and IP Providers

Moore’s Law Drives Foundries and IP Providers
by Daniel Payne on 01-19-2018 at 7:00 am

2017 was a banner year for semiconductor sales as they topped $400B for the first time, an increase of some 20%, there is happiness in Silicon Valley, Taiwan, South Korea, and well, everywhere. With the foundries pushing to ever-smaller process dimensions and even going back to mature nodes and offering more variations that are… Read More


Bicycles, Electronics and CES 2018

Bicycles, Electronics and CES 2018
by Daniel Payne on 01-10-2018 at 12:00 pm

I’m an avid road bike enthusiast having just completed my 2017 goal of 13,000 miles, so follow me on Strava if you want to see the routes and photo adventures I have in Oregon. In the photo below I’m the guy in the middle with the Portland Velojersey on and we’re in a parking lot just 2 blocks away from Intel’sRead More