On November 7 last year, Henry M. Paulson, Jr., Chairman of the Paulson Institute and former Secretary of the US Treasury gave a speech in Singapore about the growing tension between the United States and China and warned that “an economic iron curtain” is a very real possibility as a result of a decoupling between … Read More
Synchronizing with Sunlin Chou
Sometimes we get to see, up close, leaders who make a truly enormous contribution to society. Dr. Sunlin Chou was one such leader and I was a fortunate fellow traveler. Sunlin led the exponential rise of transistors for 35 years, accelerating the waves of revolutionary digital technologies serving humanity.
Fifty years have … Read More
Google Stadia is Here. What’s Your Move, Nvidia?
On March 16, 2019, Google introduced the world to its cloud-based, multi-platform gaming service, Stadia. Described as “a gaming platform for everyone” by Google CEO Sundar Pichai at the Game Developers Conference, Stadia would make high-end games accessible to everyone. The video gaming industry, as we know it, will never … Read More
So What is Quantum Computing Good For?
If you have checked out any of my previous blogs on quantum computing (QC), you may think I am not a fan. That isn’t entirely correct. I’m not a fan of hyperbolic extrapolations of the potential, but there are some applications which are entirely sensible and, I think, promising. Unsurprisingly, these largely revolve around applying… Read More
Traceability and Design Verification Synergy
The IC design and verification process can be comprised of many independent point tools, or for more synergy you can have tools that work together by a more synergistic process. We’ve all heard the maxim, “Work smarter, not harder.” A white paper just came out from Methodics on a smarter approach, Traceability… Read More
Ultra low-power Analog Design using a Multi-Project Wafer approach
On SemiWiki we often talk about bleeding-edge technology like 7nm, 5nm or even 3nm, but for analog IC designs there’s a low-cost alternative to getting your ideas validated and prototyped without taking out a multi-million dollar loan, and that’s through the use of Multi-Project Wafers (MPW). Starting with a mature… Read More
Data Center Optimization Through Game Theory
I always enjoy surprising synergies so I was immediately attracted to a Research Highlight in the Communications of the ACM this month, on a game-theoretic method to balance discretionary speed-ups (known as computational sprints) in data centers. If you don’t have an ACM membership and want to dig deeper, I include an open link… Read More
Why we will all benefit from the next space race
Until January 3, no human being had ever set eyes upon the “dark side” of the moon: the side always facing away from the Earth. It always remained a mystery. But no longer. China’s National Space Administration successfully landed a lunar lander, Chang’e-4, at South Pole-Aitken, the moon’s largest and deepest basin. Its lunar rover… Read More
Intel Swaggers at CES
Intel started out as a DRAM company using planar NMOS technology, then later on added EPROM and Microprocessors to the product mix. Their CPU technology enabled the dynamic growth of the PC industry starting with the IBM PC back in 1981 and continuing all of the way to this day. They long ago dropped out of the DRAM marketplace and began… Read More
Contrarian Views on Quantum Computing
I’m not opposed to the exotic ideas which capture public attention from time to time, but I do enjoy puncturing a popular expectation demanding every novel technology be a revolutionary breakthrough. I’ve already made my small contribution to driving a stake through the heart of claims that quantum computing (QC) will replace… Read More
Unlocking the cloud: A new era for post-tapeout flow for semiconductor manufacturing