Dr. Walden Rhines has appeared many times on SemiWiki. His discussions touch on a variety of topics, most recently on the health of EDA and IP. His knowledge of our industry is substantial, and he always seems to have a new take on the trends and technologies that are unfolding around us. So, when Wally took the stage for a keynote address… Read More
Artificial Intelligence
Altair’s Jim Cantele Predicts the Future of Chip Design
We all know chip design is changing in substantial ways and at a fast pace. The demands being placed on semiconductor systems are growing dramatically, and the innovation being delivered to address those demands is just as dramatic. Everyone seems to have an opinion on these trends, and a set of predications to make sense out of it… Read More
Reducing Electronic Systems Design Complexity with AI
In the world of electronic systems design, complexity has always been a major challenge. As technology advances and demands for more efficient and powerful electronic devices grow, engineers face increasingly intricate design requirements. These complexities often lead to longer design cycles, increased costs, … Read More
SEMICON West 2023 Summary – No recovery in sight – Next Year?
-SEMICON well attended but bouncing along the biz bottom
-Recovery seems at least a year away with memory even more
-AI creates hope but not impactful- Disconnect tween stocks & reality
-AMAT me too platform- Back end benefits from chiplets
SEMICON busy but subdued
SEMICON is certainly back to pre-covid levels or perhaps better.… Read More
The Siemens Digital Industries Software View of AI and its Impact on System Design
The impact of AI seems to be everywhere. Products are smarter, doing more of what used to be done by the humans. Complex tasks can be completed quicker and with greater accuracy and failures can now be predicted more reliably and repaired before they even occur. The AI technologies used to make all this happen and how those technologies… Read More
WEBINAR: Leap Ahead of the Competition with AI-Driven EDA Technology
The demands on today’s designs are relentless. Each generation of devices needs to be faster, smaller, more functional, more connected and more secure than the previous generation. In the face of all this, the time required for next-generation devices to hit the market is dramatically shrinking. That means the competitive landscape… Read More
Vision Transformers Challenge Accelerator Architectures
For what seems like a long time in the fast-moving world of AI, CNNs and their relatives have driven AI engine architectures at the edge. While the nature of neural net algorithms has evolved significantly, they are all assumed to be efficiently handled on a heterogenous platform processing through the layers of a DNN: an NPU for … Read More
Computational Imaging Craves System-Level Design and Simulation Tools to Leverage AI in Embedded Vision
Aberration-free optics are bulky and expensive. Thanks to high-performance AI-enabled processors and GPUs with abundant processing capabilities, image quality nowadays relies more on high computing power tied to miniaturized optics and sensors. Computational imaging is the new trend in imaging and relies on the fusion … Read More
TSMC Redefines Foundry to Enable Next-Generation Products
For many years, monolithic chips defined semiconductor innovation. New microprocessors defined new markets, as did new graphics processors, and cell-phone chips. Getting to the next node was the goal, and when the foundry shipped a working part victory was declared. As we know, this is changing. Semiconductor innovation is… Read More
Efabless Celebrates AI Design Challenge Winners!
The first AI Generated Open-Source Silicon Design Challenge invited participants to use generative AI to design an open-source silicon chip and tape it out in just three weeks. The contestants were required to create Verilog code from natural language prompts, and then implemented their designs using the chipIgnite platform… Read More


Intel: Pushing EMIB Forward: Design Methodology Insights with Synopsys Tools