Linley Tech Mobile Conference

Linley Tech Mobile Conference
by Paul McLellan on 04-18-2012 at 2:14 pm

I went to part of the Linley Tech Mobile Conference. This is the current incarnation of what started life as Michael Slater’s Microprocessor Report, and the twice-yearly Microprocessor Forum. These very technical analysis organizations seem to work well when they are a small group of analysts working together to cover… Read More


ARM Seahawk

ARM Seahawk
by Paul McLellan on 04-17-2012 at 8:27 pm

I wrote on Monday about ARM’s Processor Optimization Packs (POPs). In Japan they announced yesterday the Seahawk hard macro implementation in the TSMC 28HPM process. It is the highest performance ARM to date, running at over 2GHz. It is a quad-core Cortex A15.

The hard macro was developed using ARM Artisan 12-track libraries… Read More


Laker Wobegon, where all the layout is above average

Laker Wobegon, where all the layout is above average
by Paul McLellan on 04-17-2012 at 4:00 am

TSMC’s technnology symposium seems to be the new time to make product announcements, with ARM and Atrenta yesterday and Springsoft today.

There is a new incarnation of Springsoft’s Laker layout family, Laker[SUP]3[/SUP] (pronounced three, not cubed). The original version ran on its own proprietary database.… Read More


Atrenta’s Spring Cleaning Deal

Atrenta’s Spring Cleaning Deal
by Paul McLellan on 04-16-2012 at 9:00 am

Atrenta is having a special offer to let you “spring clean” your IP for free. They are providing two weeks of free access to the Atrenta IP kit starting from today, April 16th, until the end of May. During this period, qualified design groups in the US will be able to use the kit for two consecutive weeks to “spring… Read More


Making your ARMs POP

Making your ARMs POP
by Paul McLellan on 04-16-2012 at 6:30 am

Just in time for TSMC’s technology symposium (tomorrow) ARM have announced a whole portfolio of new Processor Optimization Packs (POPs) for TSMC 40nm and 28nm. For most people, me included, my first question was ‘What is a POP?’

A POP is three things:

  • physical IP
  • certified benchmarking
  • implementation knowledge
Read More

Handsets, what’s up?

Handsets, what’s up?
by Paul McLellan on 04-13-2012 at 3:02 pm

So who’s in and who’s out these days in handsets?

It looks as if Samsung has finally achieved a long-held goal to be the largest handset vendor, taking over from Nokia which has been the market leader for 14 years since 1998 when it passed Motorola. Nokia hasn’t reported yet but they cut their forecast. Samsung … Read More


I Love DAC

I Love DAC
by Paul McLellan on 04-13-2012 at 1:16 pm

For the fourth year Atrenta, Cadence and Springsoft are jointly sponsoring the “I LOVE DAC” campaign. In case you have been hibernating all winter, DAC is June 3-7th in San Francisco at the Moscone Center.

There are two parts to “I LOVE DAC”. First, if you register by May 15th (and they haven’t all… Read More


EDPS: 3D ICs, part II

EDPS: 3D ICs, part II
by Paul McLellan on 04-12-2012 at 10:00 pm

Part I is here.

In the panel session at EDPS on 3D IC a number of major issues got highlighted (highlit?).

The first is the problem of known-good-die (KDG) which is what killed off the promising multi-chip-module approach, perhaps the earliest type of interposer. The KDG problem is that with a single die in a package it doesn’t… Read More


Doing what others don’t do

Doing what others don’t do
by Paul McLellan on 04-12-2012 at 2:56 pm

Wally Rhines’ keynote at U2U, the Mentor users’ group meeting, was about Mentor’s strategy of focusing on what other people don’t do. This is partially a defensive approach, since Mentor has never had the financial firepower to have the luxury of focusing all their development on sustaining their products and then make … Read More


EDPS: 3D ICs, part I

EDPS: 3D ICs, part I
by Paul McLellan on 04-10-2012 at 10:00 pm

The second day (more like a half-day) of EDPS was devoted to 3D ICs. There was a lot of information, too much to summarize in a few hundred words. The keynote was by Riko Radojcic of Qualcomm, who has been a sort of one-man-band attempting to drive the EDA and manufacturing industries towards 3D. Of course it helps if you don’t … Read More