With ever challenging time to market requirements, co-developing IP and firmware is imperative for all system development projects. But that doesn’t make the task any easier. Depending on the complexity of the system being developed, the task gets tougher. For example, different pieces of IP may be the output of various teams… Read More
Semiconductor Intellectual Property
Optimizing AI/ML Operations at the Edge
AI/ML functions are moving to the edge to save power and reduce latency. This enables local processing without the overhead of transmitting large volumes of data over power hungry and slow communication links to servers in the cloud. Of course, the cloud offers high performance and capacity for processing the workloads. Yet, … Read More
Alphawave IP and the Evolution of the ASIC Business
Alphawave IP has agreed to acquire OpenFive, a SiFive business unit (formerly Open-Silicon) for $210m in cash. Having spent many years in the ASIC business which included working with Open-Silicon, Alphawave, and OpenFive here is my perspective on the acquisition:
This acquisition accomplishes two things: First it trims down… Read More
Leveraging Virtual Platforms to Shift-Left Software Development and System Verification
Ever since the cost of development started growing exponentially, engineering teams have been deploying a shift-left strategy to software development and system verification. While this has helped contain cost and accelerated product development schedules, a shift-left strategy is not without challenges. A virtual platform… Read More
Use Existing High Speed Interfaces for Silicon Test
The growth of complexity for silicon test as it relates to test data volume and test times is driven by multiple concurrent factors. One dimension is simply the increase in silicon complexity. However, other factors are playing a role as well. These include higher reliability requirements for new applications such as automotive,… Read More
Webinar: From Glass Break Models to Person Detection Systems, Deploying Low-Power Edge AI for Smart Home Security
Moving deep learning from the cloud to the edge is the holy grail when it comes to deploying highly accurate, low-power applications. Market demand for edge AI continues to grow globally as new hardware and software solutions are now more readily available, enabling any sized company to easily implement deep learning solutions… Read More
CEO Interview: Frankwell Lin, Chairman and CEO of Andes Technology
Frankwell Lin, Chairman of Andes Technology, started his career being as application engineer in United Microelectronics Corporation (UMC) while UMC was an IDM with its own chip products, he experienced engineering, product planning, sales, and marketing jobs with various product lines in UMC. In 1995, after four years working… Read More
Non Volatile Memory IP is Invaluable for PMICs
Power Management ICs are a vitally important part of system design. Evidence of this is cited by a Synopsys white paper that mentions how Apple acquired a portion of PMIC developer Dialog Semiconductor that was previously their exclusive PMIC supplier. Clearly Apple had decided that PMIC design was a strategic differentiating… Read More
WEBINAR: Balancing Performance and Power in adding AI Accelerators to System-on-Chip (SoC)
Among the multiple technologies that are poised to deliver substantial value in the future, Artificial Intelligence (AI) tops the list. An IEEE survey showed that AI will drive the majority of innovation across almost every industry sector in the next one to five years.
As a result, the AI revolution is motivating the need for … Read More
An Ah-Ha Moment for Testbench Assembly
Sometimes we miss the forest for the trees, and I’m as guilty as anyone else. When we think testbenches, we rightly turn to UVM because that’s the agreed standard, and everyone has been investing their energy in learning UVM. UVM is fine, so why do we need to talk about anything different? That’s the forest and trees thing. We don’t … Read More


TSMC CoWoS versus Intel EMIB Semiconductor Packaging