I have an old weathered leather-clad black notebook with a National Semiconductor logo on its face that I have used since 2001. It has sentimental value to me. First, it reminds me of where I was on 9/11, having breakfast with a group of attendees to National Semiconductor’s executive event in Laguna Niguel, CA. We were going to play… Read More
Author: Randy Smith
Considering SiFive: What Should I Get to Implement a RISC-V Core?
The Implications of the Rise of AI/ML in the Cloud
Recently, Daniel Nenni blogged on the presentation Wally Rhines gave at #56th DAC. Daniel provided a great summary, but I want to dive into a portion of the presentation in more detail. I love Wally’s presentations, but sometimes you cannot absorb the wealth of information he provides when you initially see it. It’s… Read More
Verification 3.0 Holds it First Innovation Summit
Last week I attended the first Verification 3.0 Innovation Summit held at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara along with about 90 other interested engineers and former engineers (meaning marketing and sales people, like me). There was a great vibe and feel to the event as it exuded an energy level that I have not felt at an EDA event in years.… Read More
HOT Party for a Cause at DAC 55
The Design Automation Conference (DAC), now in its 55[SUP]th[/SUP] year, always offers a lively mix of activities. For EDA vendors and their customers, the focus is on the exhibit floor and in booth suites where the latest technology is on display. For R&D engineers and academics, the technical sessions dig deeply into an … Read More
A Shot in the ARM for IoT
I recently attended the IoT Developers Conference in Santa Clara, CA. There were clearly two major themes in the talks – security and low power. The volume market in IoT is in the edge node devices. These devices have two important characteristics. They acquire data which needs to be transmitted and they typically are battery-driven… Read More
Where are the Entrepreneurs?
This week I attended the UpWest Labs event in San Francisco. UpWest Labs provides seed funding and incubation for a wide range of domains including Enterprise Software, Internet of Things, Infrastructure Technologies, Artificial Intelligence, Consumer Applications, Drones, Cyber Security, Augmented Reality / Virtual … Read More
Product Marketing & the Butterfly Effect
I often feel that product marketing can simultaneously be an underrated and overrated function. More often than not, it suggests product goals, pricing, and positioning. Then the marketing department must defend those positions to both engineering and sales. However, both the engineering and sales departments can claim expertise… Read More
Cadence’s Mixed-Signal Technology Summit
On October 10, I attended another Cadence Summit, this one titled the Cadence Mixed-Signal Technology Summit. Recently, I had written about the Cadence Silicon Verification Summit. The verification event was the first of its kind, and I thought it had terrific content. Being more of a digital guy myself, I was unaware that Cadence… Read More
Cadence’s System-to-Silicon Verification Summit
At this year’s DAC, I spoke with several friends at Cadence. I got the distinct impression that something at Cadence had changed. There was a sense of pride and accomplishment that it seems to me had drifted away over the years. Now employees were speaking with true conviction about the accomplishments of the product development… Read More
What Does Sports and NoC Have in Common?
As an Oakland Raider season ticket holder I attend as many Raider home games as possible. If you have ever attended a live sporting event at a large stadium, and you travelled by car, you are probably familiar with the traffic problems that occur at the end of the game when everyone wants to leave the stadium parking lot at the same time.… Read More
The Data Crisis is Unfolding – Are We Ready?