Before the advent of the digitized society and computer chips, things that needed protection were mostly hard assets such as jewelry, coins, real estate, etc. Administering security was simple and depended on strong guards who provided security through physical means. Then came the safety box services offered by financial … Read More
Semiconductor Intellectual Property
Analog to Digital Converter Circuits for Communications, AI and Automotive
Sensors are inherently analog in nature, and they get digitized for processing by using an Analog to Digital Converter (ADC) block. At the recent IP SoC event I had the chance to see the presentation by Ken Potts, COO of Alphacore on their semiconductor IP for ADCs. I learned that Alphacore started out in 2012, now offering both standard… Read More
How an Embedded Non-Volatile Memory Can Be a Differentiator
Embedded memory makes computing applications run faster. In the early days of the semiconductor industry, the desire to utilize large amount of on-chip memory was limited by cost, manufacturing difficulties and technology mismatches between logic and memory circuit implementations. Since then, advancements in semiconductor… Read More
Chiplets UCIe Require Verification
Chiplets have been trending on SemiWiki for the past two years and I think that will continue into the distant future. As a potential way to unclog Moore’s Law, you can bet the semiconductor ecosystem will prove once again to be a chiplet force of nature driving semiconductor company roadmaps to smaller and better things.
To be clear,… Read More
MIPI bridging DSI-2 and CSI-2 Interfaces with an FPGA
We’re so spoiled by 4K and 8K and frame rates of 120 Hz or higher video content on high-performance devices that now, many of us expect these higher resolutions and rates on even small devices. The necessary interfaces exist in MIPI Display Serial Interface 2 (DSI-2) and Camera Serial Interface 2 (CSI-2). The challenge is these interfaces… Read More
CEO Interview: Ron Black of Codasip
Dr. Black has over 30 years of industry experience. Before joining Codasip, he has been President and CEO at Imagination Technologies and previously CEO at Rambus, MobiWire (SAGEM Handsets), UPEK, and Wavecom. He holds a BS and MS in Engineering and a Ph.D. in Materials science from Cornell University. A consistent thread of his… Read More
Rethinking the System Design Process
The system design process can incorporate linear thinking, parallel thinking, or both, depending on the nature of the anticipated system, subsystem, or element of a subsystem. The structure, composition, scale, or focal point of a new/incremental system design incorporates the talents and gifts of the designer in either a … Read More
Re-configuring RISC-V Post-Silicon
How do you reconfigure system characteristics? The answer to that question is well established – through software. Make the underlying hardware general enough and use platform software to update behaviors and tweak hardware configuration registers. This simple fact drove the explosion of embedded processors everywhere … Read More
Is your career at RISK without RISC-V?
I am delighted to share my technical insights into RISC-V in this article to inspire and prepare the next generation of chip designers for the future of the open era of computing. If you understand how we build complex electronic devices like desktops and smartphones using processors, you would be more interested in learning and… Read More
High-End Interconnect IP Forecast 2022 to 2026
The Interface IP market has grown with 21% CAGR from 2017 to 2021 and we review the part of this market restricted to the high-end of PCIe, DDR, Ethernet and D2D IP made of PHY and controller targeting the most advanced technology nodes and latest protocol release. We will show that an IP vendor focusing investment on the high-end interconnect… Read More
cHBM for AI: Capabilities, Challenges, and Opportunities