The semiconductor industry today is faced with several substantial issues—the continuing rise in design costs for complex SoCs, the decrease in the incidence of first-time-right designs and the increase in the design cycle time against shrinking market windows and decreasing product life cycles. An additional factor has … Read More
Artificial Intelligence
Better Speech Recognition by Reducing Babble
I’ve become a bit of a connoisseur of voice-based control, so when Chris Rowen did a pitch on Babble Labs at Arm Dev Summit last month, I wanted to listen in. Chris was the CEO of Babble Labs, recently acquired by the Cisco Webex group where he’s now listed as VP Engineering of the Voice Technology Group. You should expect to see this… Read More
The History and Significance of Power Optimization, According to Jim Hogan
Power seems to be on everyone’s mind these days. Hyperscale data centers worry about operating costs unless power is optimized. The AI accelerators in the Edge can’t be effective without optimized power. Advanced 2.5 and 3D packages simply can’t remove the heat unless power is optimized. And then there’s all those gadgets we … Read More
SiFive Expands RISC-V Technology and its Ecosystem at the Fall Linley Processor Conference
As the Linley Fall Processor Conference winds down, there are certain presenting companies that left a lasting impression. SiFive is one of those companies. On October 21, SiFive introduced the newest member of the SiFive Intelligence family of processor coresSiFive Intelligence family of processor cores, based on… Read More
Achronix is Driving the Fourth FPGA Wave
Technology typically evolves in waves. Sometimes it’s referred to as a “revolution” or an “age”. The industrial revolution and the information age are examples. These kinds of categorizations help to clarify the impact of innovation in ways that are relevant to everyone – you can’t look away if the world is changing around you.… Read More
I Have Seen the Future – Cornami’s TruStream Computational Fabric Changes Computing
Here is another installment regarding presentations at the Linley Fall Processor Conference. Every now and again, you see a presentation at an event like this that shakes you up. Sometimes in a good way, sometimes not so much. I attended the Cornami presentation on its new TruStream computational fabric and I was definitely shaken… Read More
Designing Smarter, not Smaller AI Chips with GLOBALFOUNDRIES
On October 20 at the Linley Fall Processor Conference, GLOBALFOUNDRIES made a compelling case for designing smarter, not smaller AI chips. The virtual conference was filled with presentations on the latest architectures and chips for all types of AI/ML applications. It was therefore a refreshing change of pace to hear the fab… Read More
Nvidia Arm Acquisition Talking Points
Before founding SemiWiki I competed with Arm on many different levels throughout my career and I have had various business dealings with them since. SemiWiki also published the definitive book on Arm: “Mobile Unleashed” which goes deep into the history of Arm and the top SoC companies (Qualcomm, Apple, and Samsung).… Read More
How ML Enables Cadence Digital Tools to Deliver Better PPA
There has been a lot written about artificial intelligence/machine learning (AI/ML) and its application in the Cadence digital design flow. Most recently, I covered significant verification efficiency improvements in Xcellium ML. A recent digital-themed white paper from Cadence takes a broader look at the impact of ML on… Read More
Flex Logix Brings AI to the Masses with InferX X1
In April, I covered a new AI inference chip from Flex Logix. Called InferX X1, this part had some very promising performance metrics. Rather than the data center, the chip focused on accelerating AI inference at the edge, where power and form factor are key metrics for success. The initial information on the chip was presented at … Read More


The AI PC: A New Category Poised to Reignite the PC Market