Everyone in EDA is really smart. People who leave EDA and go and work in other industries, especially people who left in the late 1990s for internet startups, notice that this is not true elsewhere. Not that there aren’t smart people in internet startups, just that not everyone is. EDA is an industry where you need a master’s… Read More
SemiWiki Big Data Exposed!
You will be hard pressed to attend a conference and NOT hear the term Big Data these days. What is Big Data? One example is the data SemiWiki has collected over the past 3.5 years while more than one million users have passed through our site. My summer project, with my daughter the math major, is to harness this massive pile of data and… Read More
Is Now the Time to Buy Bitcoin?
I have to admit I, thus far, have been the ultimate Bitcoin cynic. Watching the price go from $2 in the fall of 2011 to $1132 in December 2013 was dizzying. It seemed reminiscent of Dutch tulip mania. A bitcoin that is not backed by anything physical such as gold, or by a government, strikes me as only slightly less valuable than a tulip.… Read More
Solar Leases, How to Not Get Gouged by PG&E
This post will be of primary interest to California residents.
If you haven’t looked closely at your PG&E bill, this may ruin your day. If you live in a house larger than a cracker box, and actually use your lights and air conditioning, the rates you pay are exorbitant. If you live in WA you’ll be paying .06-.08 per … Read More
July 4th Fireworks
It was July 4th yesterday. Fireworks. I didn’t go down to the waterfront to see them in San Francisco this year, I was in a “place” (that might possibly have served beer) having fun. But it reminded me of this a couple of years ago. On July 4th 2012 the San Diego fireworks display, one of the biggest in the world, detonated… Read More
It’s Always Good If the Customer Is Arguing
I’ve never been in sales. Never “carried a bag”. But I have run sales forces and I have spent a lot of time in marketing, guiding sales forces. Well, herding cats comes to mind, but cats don’t have commission plans. Engineers say sales people are emotional, and ego-driven, but change their commission plans… Read More
Workshop: Embedded Applications and Kernels
Design Automation Conference Workshop on Suite of Embedded Applications and Kernels
In June, the first Suite of Embedded Applications and Kernels, or SEAK, workshop at the 2014 Design Automation Conference in San Francisco introduced a new Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency program in the area of embedded system benchmarking… Read More
Product Marketing & the Butterfly Effect
I often feel that product marketing can simultaneously be an underrated and overrated function. More often than not, it suggests product goals, pricing, and positioning. Then the marketing department must defend those positions to both engineering and sales. However, both the engineering and sales departments can claim expertise… Read More
SemiWiki is an Open Forum for Semiconductor Professionals!
Why should you be a part of SemiWiki? Two reasons: One, SemiWiki is an excellent semiconductor networking tool. Quite often “who you know” comes into play in your professional life so network-network-network. Two, SemiWiki is all about personal branding. Establish yourself as a person of interest in your chosen field and opportunities… Read More
A Re-look at TI’s Businesses, Strategies & Future
In recent days I’ve seen several long discussions about Texas Instrumentslosing its grip in semiconductor industry when it came out of a business it was strong in, i.e. wireless business. It seems the semiconductor community has not digested the fact that TI, very rightly, came out of the OMAP business at the right time. The smartphone… Read More
More Headwinds – CHIPS Act Chop? – Chip Equip Re-Shore? Orders Canceled & Fab Delay