The joint development of 3D XPoint memory technology from Intel and Micron has once more brought the spotlight on data centers and chips for solid-state drives (SSDs). The two semiconductor industry giants claim that 3D XPoint memory is1,000 times faster than NAND Flash: the underlying memory content for SSDs. Such developments… Read More
Semiconductor Intellectual Property
I want to use USB Type C (and I want it now)
USB is certainly the most ubiquitous of the Interface protocols, used in our day to day life to connect multiple systems, as well as in professional segments like industrial or even high performance servers (yes, these systems integrates USB 3 connections). But USB is also one of the protocols able to generate frustration every… Read More
ARM and the Law of Accelerating Returns!
ARM is one of the companies I have had professional experience with during my storied semiconductor career so I know some of their history first hand. I worked for a physical IP company that was purchased by ARM and at Virage Logic we competed against ARM head-to-head. ARM is also featured in our book “Fabless: The Transformation … Read More
The Evolution of Smart Glass Design
The wearer says, “O.K., Glass” and glass leaps into action, performing most of the smartphone functions like check e-mails, take photos and videos, provide turn-by-turn navigation, and make and receive phone calls. Welcome to Smartphone 2.0.
Technology pundits called Google Glass the best thing that happened… Read More
Synopsys Buys Bluetooth IP
There is obviously a broad spectrum of semiconductor IP but broadly speaking it seems to fall into three buckets:
- foundation IP: standard cells, memories
- microprocessors and associated peripherals
- interface IP
Foundation IP is where it all started. When I was at Compass Design Automation in the 1990s that was pretty much what… Read More
NetSpeed NoC IP or Architectural Synthesis Company?
When you look at NetSpeed’s NocStudio design tool, you first think “I see, NetSpeed is a new Network-on-Chip (NoC) IP company”. Are you wrong? Yes and no… No because NocStudio indeed generates a NoC. Yes, because the company objectives are going much farther than simply deliver a new NoC solution. According with Sundari Mitra, … Read More
Leveraging Power Reduction Techniques for MCU Based SoCs
Dolphin Integration launched a new 32-bit microcontroller, RISC-351 Zephyr, targeting low-power SoCs for IoT-like competitive markets taking into consideration three angles for optimization of power consumption: architectural, memory and software.
Architecture Angle
As a reminder, 8-bit versus 16-bit versus 32-bit… Read More
VC For Semiconductor: Dead or Alive?
By Charlie Cheng, CEO of Kilopass.
Six years ago, I left my Entrepreneur-In-Residence (EIR) role at a venture capital firm to join Kilopass as an “interim CEO”, thinking the venture world will eventually forget about semiconductor as an industry as it matures. So it’s interesting to me how, six years later, the venture investment… Read More
Which High B/W Memory to Select after DDR4?
Once upon a time, RAM technology was the driver of the semiconductor process. DRAM products were the first to be designed on a newest technology node and DRAM was used as a process driver. It was 30 years ago and the most aggressive process nodes were ranging between 1um and 1.5 um (1 500 nm!). Then in the 1990 the Synchronous Dynamic … Read More
Why Automotive IP Portfolio is not just IP
Synopsys is launching a broad IP portfolio to support SoC development dedicated to emerging automotive complexes functions, like Driver Assistance (ADAS), Driver Information, Vehicle Network or Infotainment. I was never involved into IC design for Automotive, but I have designed ASIC for avionics (CFM56 motor control) or… Read More
Intel to Compete with Broadcom and Marvell in the Lucrative ASIC Business