Are you going to the plug fest?

Are you going to the plug fest?
by Eric Esteve on 05-17-2013 at 10:16 am

PCI Express 3.0 specification is 1000 pages long. Most of us, and most of the designers integrating PCIe gen-3 into their latest ASIC, FPGA or system will probably never read it completely, or even open it. In fact, they don’t need to read it completely, but they should care about one point, whether they buy an ASSP or a PCIe design IP:… Read More


Tag it! Your customer will love using IP compliant with TSMC9000 IP Tag specification

Tag it! Your customer will love using IP compliant with TSMC9000 IP Tag specification
by Eric Esteve on 05-16-2013 at 1:26 am

We have seen last week in a first post how crucial was the IP qualification process (TSMC 9000) to increase the probability of successfully Tape Out a chip. Being able to discriminate between dangerous and safe IP is the first step of TSMC 9000 Quality process, IP tagging is the complementary step, almost as essential as the first … Read More


Design IP round #2: after road-test, time for the race

Design IP round #2: after road-test, time for the race
by Eric Esteve on 05-09-2013 at 10:58 am

Design IP, at least Interface IP, is about 15 years old, but the market was made of one large provider – Synopsys- with many small vendors around. Chip makers were not very comfortable with this picture, especially the Tier 1 considering that the risk (to see the big one being acquired by one of their direct competitor, say Samsung… Read More


IP Quality: Foundation of a Successful Ecosystem

IP Quality: Foundation of a Successful Ecosystem
by Eric Esteve on 05-08-2013 at 8:46 am

Talking about Design IP (I mean successful Design IP) lead you to quickly pronounce the two magic key words: Quality and Ecosystem. Those who remember the IP emergence in the mid 90’s know very well why Quality has to be a prerequisite when dealing with Design IP, as they probably have paid the price of mediocre IP quality at that time.… Read More


CDN Live 2013 in Munich: what’s the next acquisition? Evatronix!

CDN Live 2013 in Munich: what’s the next acquisition? Evatronix!
by Eric Esteve on 05-07-2013 at 2:44 am

It was definitely a good idea to go to Munich to listen to the keynote talk from Lip-Bu Tan. Did I learned in direct live the name of the next acquisition from Cadence in 2013, after Tensilica and Cosmic Circuits? Yes and the winner is… Evatronix! And cadence as well as Evatronix is enjoying more than 600 customers worldwide, thanks … Read More


(Must Read) Arteris Blog activity: IP, 20 nm node and CTO interview

(Must Read) Arteris Blog activity: IP, 20 nm node and CTO interview
by Eric Esteve on 04-30-2013 at 8:10 pm

I just read three very interesting blogs from Arteris. In the first “The Semiconductor Industry Needs an IP Switzerland”, Kurt Shuler, VP of Marketing for Arteris, enjoys about the fact that four big IP players (ARM, Synopsys, Imagination and Cadence) are emerging after years of fragmentation within the semiconductor IP industry.… Read More


NVM IP Security Solutions…

NVM IP Security Solutions…
by Eric Esteve on 04-29-2013 at 8:51 am

If you need securely storing in your SoC a data which is by nature unique, like encryption key, or a software code update, then you will probably decide to implement a Non Volatile Memory (NVM) block, delivered as an IP function, instead of using an expensive CMOS technology with embedded Flash capability. For example, Synopsys … Read More


Bring high end camera image quality to smartphone

Bring high end camera image quality to smartphone
by Eric Esteve on 04-25-2013 at 9:13 am

We have to go back to 2008 to understand why Super Resolution is desperately needed by smartphone users, expecting to take high quality pictures with their smartphone, at least as good quality as with their camera. It’s in 2008 that smartphone worldwide shipments have surpassed standalone compact camera shipments… and we don’t… Read More


CDN Live 2013 in Munich: what’s the next acquisition?

CDN Live 2013 in Munich: what’s the next acquisition?
by Eric Esteve on 04-23-2013 at 8:10 pm

Going to Munich in May could be a very good idea, as it will give you the opportunity to listen to the keynote talk from Lip-Bu Tan. Who knows if you will learn in direct live the name of the next acquisition from Cadence in 2013, after Tensilica and Cosmic Circuits? In fact, there may not be new acquisition announcement, then this keynote… Read More


Using Android Multimedia Framework drastically reduces power consumption in mobile

Using Android Multimedia Framework drastically reduces power consumption in mobile
by Eric Esteve on 04-18-2013 at 8:05 pm

The multiplication of chips capable to run Multimedia processing (sound, image or video) in a mobile device, smartphone or media tablet, like Application Processor (AP), Baseband (BB), Codec or companion chip, each of these embedding one or multiple processor can be seen as a good opportunity to simplify the device architecture…… Read More