As we left an exciting year 2014 which is poised to record 7+ % increase in semiconductor revenue (~ $338 B) compared to 2013 (~ $315 B) and entered into another promising year 2015 for semiconductors, I looked back over the year bygone and collected inferences from some of the major important events which clearly convey how 2015 can… Read More
Semiconductor Intellectual Property
Last VIP News of 2014
It’s likely that most of the current Semiwiki readers didn’t read this article posted in 2011, comparing Cadence and Synopsys with the Soviet Union and the USA, sharing the world in 1944 during the Yalta Conference. I was explaining in my post that Synopsys’s strong influence was on Design IP when Cadence’s preferred domain was … Read More
ASIC Days Are Here Again
Technology often goes in cycles. Thirty years ago the dominant mode of computing was a shared computing resource with comparatively dumb terminals. Think of a Vax accessed by terminals. Then workstations and the PC came along and the dominant mode became a computer on everyone’s desk. Then the smartphone came along and … Read More
Lead, follow, or catch the next Silicon Valley wave
What does the IoT mean for the next wave of Silicon Valley innovators? Looking at the previous waves of semiconductor economic development and the doctrine of “creative destruction” holds clues as to how this one develops and who emerges as the new leaders.
Given seven decades of progress, it may seem semiconductor firms on top … Read More
Winning the IoT protocol battle with DSP
There are too many IoT protocols. Way too many. Anyone who says one single protocol will be the winner from end-to-end in all IoT applications and markets is smoking something. Software defined, multi-protocol gateways are the only hope on the IoT – and DSP cores enable this strategy.… Read More
NoC IP boosts SoC reliability, fault tolerance
System-on-chip (SoC) devices are increasingly becoming more complex in terms of adding functionality yet they need to be more reliable and fault tolerant for automotive, aerospace and industrial electronics.
Arteris Inc.—which invented the network-on-chip (NoC) interconnect technology back in 2006—is now offering FlexNoC… Read More
SIM cards and avoiding stranded IoT assets
Since pennants, drums, smoke, and horses fell out of favor to more advanced communication technology, network operators have struggled to find balance. Too few subscribers interested, and infrastructure investments completely fail. Just the right number of paying users, revenue streams provide profit and ability to invest… Read More
ARMmbed? IoT dedicated ARM OS!
The IP vendor #1, leading the pack with revenues more than twice the closest competitor revenues, has to position on the new IoT market, especially because ARM’s main product line is processor IP family, and MCU or CPU is certainly at the earth of the SmarCoT: the “Smart” part. In fact, ARM’s customers have the freedom to develop any… Read More
Is Your Washing Machine a Connected Thing?
In fact the question could be about your watch, thermostat or other smart appliance, as soon as the “thing” relies on one or more sensors to function. In this case, we are close to call this thing an IoT (or SmarCoT), we just need to add WiFi, BTLE, ZigBee connectivity. Sensors are ubiquitous, integrated into smartphone, automotive,… Read More
MIPS CPU and Newton2 Platform for Wearables
I have written recently about SmarCoT (Smart Connected Thing) and smartwatches are one of these numerous smart and connected applications that some still refer to as IoT. Imagination Technologies is working hard to be part of the SmarCoT ecosystem and Ingenic, IMG customer, has recently launched a MIPS-based chip (M200) and … Read More
Moore’s Law Wiki