On the Sunday evening at IEDM last year, TechInsights held a reception in which Arabinda Das and Jeongdong Choe gave presentations that attracted a roomful of conference attendees. Arabinda was first up, giving a talk on the “10-year Journey of Apple’s iPhone and Innovations in Semiconductor Technology”, followed by Jeongdong… Read More
Real Time Object Recognition for Automotive Applications
The basic principles used for neural networks have been understood for decades, what have changed to make them so successful in recent years are increased processing power, storage and training data. Layered on top of this is continued improvement in algorithms, often enabled by dramatic hardware performance improvements.… Read More
DAC56 Keynotes and SKYtalks – The Big Picture
Many of us have engineering degrees and are well paid to maintain a deep but narrow focus into a specific domain, but what about the big picture, like industry trends and emerging challenges? Well, DAC56 has just the thing to deliver us a front row seat to the big picture, and it’s contained in both the Keynotes and SKYtalks.… Read More
Cloud-based Functional Verification
The big three EDA vendors are constantly putting more of their tools in the cloud in order to speed up the design and verification process for chip designers, but how do engineering teams approach using the cloud for functional verification tests and regressions? At the recent Cadence user group meeting (CDNLive) there was a presentation… Read More
The Answer to Why Intel PMOS and NMOS Fins are Different Sizes
Like many others, we have often wondered why the PMOS fins on advanced microprocessors from Intel are narrower than the NMOS fins (6nm versus 8nm). This unusual dimensional difference first occurred at the 14nm node and it coincided with the introduction of Solid State Doping (SSD) of the fins at this node.
We have concluded that… Read More
The ESD Alliance Welcomes You to an Evening with Jim Hogan and Paul Cunningham
An informal “Fireside Chat” like no other featuring Jim Hogan, managing partner of Vista Ventures, LLC., and Paul Cunningham, Cadence’s corporate vice president and general manager of the system verification group, is in the works for Wednesday, April 10.
Hosted by the ESD Alliance, a SEMI Strategic Association Partner, at … Read More
What to Expect from the GSA Executive European Forum?
I plan to attend to the GSA European Forum in Munich (April 15-16), so I first looked at the event description and at the impressive speakers list. In such event, the goal is at 50% to listen, and 50% to network with the speakers and the other attendant. The center of gravity is clearly semiconductor, but the event involved speakers … Read More
How to Spice Up Your Library Characterization
It used to be that at the mention of libraries, people would think of foundry PDK deliverables. However, now a host of factors such as automotive thermal requirements, nanometer FinFET processes, near threshold voltages, higher clock rates, high volumes, etc., have dramatically changed library development. These factors … Read More
Verification 3.0 Holds it First Innovation Summit
Last week I attended the first Verification 3.0 Innovation Summit held at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara along with about 90 other interested engineers and former engineers (meaning marketing and sales people, like me). There was a great vibe and feel to the event as it exuded an energy level that I have not felt at an EDA event in years.… Read More
SPIE Advanced Lithography Conference – ASML EUV Update
At the SPIE Advanced Lithography Conference ASML gave an update on both the current 0.33NA system and the 0.55 high-NA system development. I saw the presentations and got to sit down with Mike Lercel (Director of Strategic Marketing).… Read More
Rapidus, IBM, and the Billion-Dollar Silicon Sovereignty Bet