Enable a new generation of connected devices?

Enable a new generation of connected devices?
by Eric Esteve on 08-19-2014 at 4:08 am

Imagination Technologies has designed a complete environment to address the needs of emerging IoT and other connected devices, FlowCloud. The technology has been engineered by Imagination to optimize device to cloud connectivity for embedded applications. FlowCloud is a cloud based application independent development… Read More


When TSMC advocates FD-SOI…

When TSMC advocates FD-SOI…
by Eric Esteve on 08-14-2014 at 1:00 pm

I found a patent recently (May,14 2013) granted to TSMC “Planar Compatible FDSOI Design Architecture”, the following sentences, directly extracted from this patent, advertise FDSOI design better than a commercial promotion! “Devices formed on SOI substrates offer many advantages over their bulk counterparts, includingRead More


Should we pay the price of Innovation?

Should we pay the price of Innovation?
by Eric Esteve on 08-08-2014 at 8:00 pm

I agree that this question sounds stupid: nobody is forcing me to buy an innovative product, or even a gadget, if I don’t want to pay a high price, I just don’t buy the product. But it seems that some people don’t really think that way. The story is related to Qualcomm sales in China, and recently announced partnership with SMIC…

The PartnershipRead More


CEVA actively preparing the future

CEVA actively preparing the future
by Eric Esteve on 08-05-2014 at 11:00 am

I have recently blogged about CEVA acquisition of Riviera Waves, a very positive move to consolidate CEVA leading position of connectivity IP vendor (Bluetooth and WiFi). We know CEVA for years as being the leading supplier of DSP IP cores for the wireless phone market and it look like that we will have to rethink this definition,… Read More


FDSOI Target Applications Are…

FDSOI Target Applications Are…
by Eric Esteve on 08-01-2014 at 12:05 pm

Not PC segment, not necessarily Application Processor for Mobile, despite the power efficiency advantage versus a bulk technology. After several weeks filled by very animated and controversial discussion about FD-SOI cost, thanks to Semiwiki bloggers and readers, it seems interesting to elevate the debate and try to figure… Read More


How Much Power to Allocate to IoT Connectivity?

How Much Power to Allocate to IoT Connectivity?
by Eric Esteve on 07-31-2014 at 8:28 am

Ensigma is in fact the low-power radio processing unit (RPU) architecture, completing Imagination Technologies (IMG) port-folio, the well-known graphic processing unit (GPU) PowerVR family and MIPS CPU core products. If we take a look at the block diagram “Ensigma Series4 Explorer RPU”, we can easily identifies the Radio … Read More


How to Trim Automotive Sensor?

How to Trim Automotive Sensor?
by Eric Esteve on 07-30-2014 at 5:21 am

The electronic content in automotive is exploding, the market for automotive electronics systems is expected to grow from $170 billion in 2011 to $266 billion by 2016 (Strategy Analytics). When you seat in a brand new car, you immediately see the difference with a ten or even five years old vehicle, as you can exercise MP3 music readers,… Read More


Keywords: FD-SOI, Cost, FinFET

Keywords: FD-SOI, Cost, FinFET
by Eric Esteve on 07-15-2014 at 4:21 am

How to synthesize a pretty good article Is SOI Really Less Expensive, and even more important the impressive amount of comments (56) generated? Let’s start with the initial article. Pretty good, but slightly biased, when you carefully dissect it, like I did in one of the comments (you can find it in-extenso at the end of this post).… Read More


CEVA + Riviera Waves = Complete WiFi and BlueTooth Solution

CEVA + Riviera Waves = Complete WiFi and BlueTooth Solution
by Eric Esteve on 07-11-2014 at 3:18 am

Thanks to the recent acquisition of Riviera Waves, CEVA is expanding from Digital only DSP IP, to supporting complete solution (Digital + mixed-signal) for both WiFi and Bluetooth functions. Such a move is already a very good market positioning, as customers prefer buying to a single source the digital and the mixed-signal part… Read More


From ARM7 to such a Large CPU cores Port-Folio

From ARM7 to such a Large CPU cores Port-Folio
by Eric Esteve on 07-08-2014 at 3:13 am

I have heard about ARM processor for the very first time in 1990, when I was interviewed by ES2 Design Center manager before being hired to subcontract an ASIC design for ES2. I don’t know why, but I remember very well that he told me about two of the ES2 partners: ARM as a processor IP core provider and TSMC as a Foundry partner if, by chance,… Read More