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
Artificial Intelligence
Can AI be Conscious?
A little self-indulgence for the season, to lighten the relentless diet of DAC updates. I found a recent Wired article based on a TED talk on consciousness. The speaker drew a conclusion that consciousness was not something that could ever be captured in a machine and was a unique capability of living creatures (or at least humans).… Read More
Is AI the end of jobs?
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is advancing so rapidly that even its developers are being caught off guard. Google co-founder Sergey Brin said in Davos, Switzerland, in January that it “touches every single one of our main projects, ranging from search to photos to ads … everything we do … it definitely surprised me, even though … Read More
Cybersecurity in the World of Artificial Intelligence
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is coming. It could contribute to a more secure and rational world or it may unravel our trust in technology. AI holds a strong promise of changing our world and extending compute functions to a more dominant role of directly manipulating physical world activities. This is a momentous step where we … Read More
AI is the Catalyst of IoT!
Businesses across the world are rapidly leveraging the Internet-of-Things (#IoT) to create new products and services that are opening up new business opportunities and creating new business models. The resulting transformation is ushering in a new era of how companies run their operations and engage with customers. However,… Read More
Smart & Connected Devices to Artificial Intelligence and Beyond
Last Friday I attended a breakfast seminar organized by SEMI in Hillsboro, Oregon with fascinating speakers from several high-tech companies: Qorvo, Intel, Oregon Angel Fund, Kimera, Moonshadow Mobile and Yole Development. I recalled that Qorvo was created from the merger of TriQuint Semiconductor and RF Micro Devices back… Read More
NetSpeed Taking a Ride with Autonomous Automobiles
The push for autonomous automobiles continues at a rapid pace. Last week a new conference was held in Santa Clara, CA by the Linley Group focused on Autonomous Hardware. The group included presentations from GLOBAL FOUNDRIES, Synopsys, NetSpeed Systems, Arteris, EMBC, Cadence, CEVA, ARM and Trilumina covering ADAS and autonomous… Read More
Communication with Smart, Connected Devices and AI
I’ve lived and worked in Silicon Valley for 13 years, but since 1995 I’ve been in the Silicon Rainforest (aka Oregon) where the world’s number one semiconductor company Intel, has a large presence, along with dozens of smaller high-tech firms. In the past year I’ve started to attend events organized … Read More
The Driver in the Driverless Car
What is the likelihood that the people building Uber’s self-driving technologies did not know that their software was highly imperfect and could endanger lives if the cars were let loose on public streets? Or that employees of Theranos did not know that their equipment would produce inaccurate diagnostics?
San Francisco has … Read More
TSMC Design Platforms Driving Next-Gen Applications
Coming up is the 23rd annual TSMC Technology Symposium where you can get first-hand updates on advanced and specialty technologies, advanced backend capabilities, future development plans, and network with hundreds of TSMC’s customers and partners. This year the Silicon Valley event kicks off at the Santa Clara Convention… Read More


The Foundry Model Is Morphing — Again