Car Vandals Eschew Crowbars

Car Vandals Eschew Crowbars
by Tom Simon on 12-03-2018 at 12:00 pm

It used to be that automotive theft and crime was perpetrated with a crowbar. Now with increased electronics content, car designer and owners need to worry about electronic threats. Anywhere there is a communication link or a processor, there are potential threats to the security of the car. The range of these threats covers everything… Read More


Achronix Assists Academics

Achronix Assists Academics
by Tom Simon on 11-28-2018 at 7:00 am

In every semiconductor related field, innovation is the name of the game. Academic, non-profit and government research has been a consistent source of innovation. Look back at the US space program, basic science research and even military programs to see where much of the foundation of our current technological age came from.… Read More


Making AI Silicon Smart with PVT Monitoring

Making AI Silicon Smart with PVT Monitoring
by Tom Simon on 11-26-2018 at 7:00 am

PVT – depending on what field you are in those three letters may mean totally different things. In my undergraduate field of study, chemistry, PVT meant Pressure, Volume & Temperature. Many of you probably remember PV=nRT, the dreaded ideal gas law. However, anybody working in semiconductors knows that PVT stands … Read More


Eta Compute Receives Two Awards from ARM at TechCon

Eta Compute Receives Two Awards from ARM at TechCon
by Tom Simon on 11-19-2018 at 7:00 am

Many startups set out with the goal of accomplishing a technical feat that was previously considered impossible. Quite frankly most do not succeed. Yet, occasionally a company comes along that succeeds with a game changing breakthrough. ETA Compute has done just this. Yet, even more impressively, this 3-year-old company has… Read More


Mentor’s Symphony in Tune with AMS Designer Needs

Mentor’s Symphony in Tune with AMS Designer Needs
by Tom Simon on 11-14-2018 at 12:00 pm

Mixed signal simulation is a very hot topic these days. In modern designs, it is harder to draw a line between the analog and digital and work with them independently. Analog blocks are showing up everywhere. Even in what would have qualified as a digital design a few years ago, now designers need to look at things like PLLs, IOs and … Read More


IoT Security Process Variation to the Rescue

IoT Security Process Variation to the Rescue
by Tom Simon on 11-12-2018 at 12:00 pm

Unique device identities are at the core of all computer security systems. Just as important is that each unique identity cannot be copied, because once copied they can be used illegitimately. Unique device IDs are used to ensure that communications are directed to the correct device. And they also provide the ability to encrypt… Read More


Coupled Electro-thermal Analysis Essential for PowerMOS Design

Coupled Electro-thermal Analysis Essential for PowerMOS Design
by Tom Simon on 11-08-2018 at 12:00 pm

Power device designers know that when they see a deceptively simple pair of PowerMOS device symbols in the output stage of a power converter circuit schematic, they are actually looking at a massively complex network of silicon and metal interconnect. The corresponding physical devices can have a total device W on the order of … Read More


Open-Silicon Embraces the Latest ISO 9001 Specification with Certification by SGS

Open-Silicon Embraces the Latest ISO 9001 Specification with Certification by SGS
by Tom Simon on 11-07-2018 at 7:00 am

A quality standard that stays static and is not itself targeted for continuous improvement, is a standard that is breaking one of the first tenets of quality. This is why the ISO 9001 specification has been updated several times since its introduction in 1987. The first version was fairly modest. The most recent version was released… Read More


Mentor’s Busy ITC and Major Test Product Updates

Mentor’s Busy ITC and Major Test Product Updates
by Tom Simon on 10-31-2018 at 1:00 pm

In conjunction with the 2018 International Test Conference, Mentor has several interesting test announcements. They also have a busy round of technical activities, including a number of technical papers, presentations, tutorials and a poster from a major customer about using Mentor. I’d like to touch on the two product related… Read More


Solving and Simulating in the New Virtuoso RF Solution

Solving and Simulating in the New Virtuoso RF Solution
by Tom Simon on 10-30-2018 at 12:00 pm

Cadence has done a good job of keeping up with the needs of analog RF designs. Of course, the term RF used to be reserved for a thin slice of designs that were used specifically in RF applications. Now, it covers things like SerDes for networking chips that have to operate in the gigahertz range. Add that to the trend of combining RF and… Read More