TSMC Teamwork Translates to Technical Triumph

TSMC Teamwork Translates to Technical Triumph
by Tom Simon on 10-02-2017 at 12:00 pm

Most people think that designing successful high speed analog circuits requires a mixture of magic, skill and lots of hard work. While this might be true, in reality it also requires a large dose of collaboration among each of the members of the design, tool and fabrication panoply. This point was recently made abundantly clear … Read More


Burning Man 2017 – My vacation is your worst nightmare

Burning Man 2017 – My vacation is your worst nightmare
by Tom Simon on 09-17-2017 at 5:00 pm

I often use this space to report on industry events I have attended and what I have learned at them. So, this article will be a slight, but not complete, departure from this. I am reporting on my experiences at Burning Man this year. For the unacquainted, Burning Man is a temporary city of around 70,000 people in a remote desert-like … Read More


Customizable Analog IP No Longer a Pipe Dream

Customizable Analog IP No Longer a Pipe Dream
by Tom Simon on 08-28-2017 at 12:00 pm

Configurable analog IP has traditionally been a tough nut to crack. Digital IP, of course, now provides for wide configurability for varying applications. In the same way that analog design has remained less deterministic as compared to digital design, analog IP has also tended to be less flexible. However, the tide may be turning… Read More


HBM offers SOC’s dense and fast memory options

HBM offers SOC’s dense and fast memory options
by Tom Simon on 08-22-2017 at 7:00 am

Dual in-line memory modules (DIMM’s ) with double data rate synchronous dynamic random access memory (DDR SDRAM) have been around since before we were worried about Y2K. Over the intervening years this format for provisioning memory has evolved from supporting DDR around 1995, to DDR1 in 2000, DDR2 in 2003, DDR4 in 2007 and DDR4… Read More


Making Sensors of the World

Making Sensors of the World
by Tom Simon on 08-15-2017 at 12:00 pm

How many sensors do you think you own? Let’s start with your thermostat. It’s simple, right? You might guess one or two, and if you owned a 2[SUP]nd[/SUP] generation Nest you’d be wrong. It comes with a light sensor, heat sensor (in addition to temp), microphone, carbon monoxide sensor, smoke sensor, and occupancy sensor. Also, … Read More


Automotive System Reliability – ISO 26262 impacts IP and Tools

Automotive System Reliability – ISO 26262 impacts IP and Tools
by Tom Simon on 08-03-2017 at 7:00 am

If you have been following the topic of ISO 26262, you now realize that IP, or even EDA design tools, developed with the highest quality standards still can’t be ISO 26262 certified. Recently I had a conversation with Kurt Shuler from Arteris about this topic. He is VP of Marketing at Arteris, and he is also on several ISO 26262 technical… Read More


Seeking Autonomy

Seeking Autonomy
by Tom Simon on 07-24-2017 at 12:00 pm

I’d wager that if I mention autonomous vehicles, the first thing that you would think of would be autonomous cars. The truth is that we will see many other kinds autonomous vehicles in the years ahead. Their applications will range from package delivery to saving lives on the battlefield. Of course, to some extent they are already… Read More


Applying ISO 26262 in a Fabless Ecosystem – DAC Panel Discussion

Applying ISO 26262 in a Fabless Ecosystem – DAC Panel Discussion
by Tom Simon on 07-18-2017 at 12:00 pm

The fabless movement was instrumental in disaggregating the semiconductor industry. Vertical product development at the chip and system level has given way to a horizontal structure over the years. This organization of product development has been doing an admirable job of delivering extremely reliable products. However… Read More


Machine Learning in EDA Flows – Solido DAC Panel

Machine Learning in EDA Flows – Solido DAC Panel
by Tom Simon on 07-12-2017 at 12:00 pm

At DAC this year you could learn a lot about hardware design for AI or Machine Learning (ML) applications. We are all familiar with the massively parallel hardware being developed for autonomous vehicles, cloud computing, search engines and the like. This includes, for instance, hardware from Nvidia and others that enable ML … Read More


Embedded FPGA’s create new IP category

Embedded FPGA’s create new IP category
by Tom Simon on 07-07-2017 at 12:00 pm

FPGA’s are the new superstar in the world of Machine Learning and Cloud Computing, and with new methods of implementing them in SOC’s there will be even more growth ahead. FPGA’s started out as a cost effective method for implementing logic without having to spin an ASIC or gate array. With the advent of the web and high performance… Read More