Machine Learning (ML) has become extremely important for many computing applications, especially ones that involve interacting with the physical world. Along with this trend has come the development of many specialized ML processors for cloud and mobile applications. These chips work fine in the cloud or even in cars or phones,… Read More





De-Risking High-Speed RF Designs from Electromagnetic Crosstalk Issue
At DesignCon 2020, ANSYS sponsored a series of very high-quality presentations. Some focused on advanced methods and new technology exploration and some provided head-on, practical and actionable capabilities to improve advanced designs. The presentation I will discuss here falls into the latter category. The topic was… Read More
Innovation in Verification – February 2020
This blog is the next in a series in which Paul Cunningham (GM of the Verification Group at Cadence), Jim Hogan and I pick a paper on a novel idea in verification and debate its strengths and opportunities for improvement.
Our goal is to support and appreciate further innovation in this area. Please let us know what you think and please… Read More
Emerging Requirements for Electromagnetic Crosstalk Analysis
This article will describe the motivations for pursuing a new flow in the SoC design methodology. This flow involves the extraction, evaluation, and analysis of a full electromagnetic coupling model for a complex SoC and its package environment. The results of this analysis highlight the impact of electromagnetic coupling… Read More
It’s The Small Stuff That Gets You …
The last session I attended at DesignCon 2020 wasn’t a session at all. Rather it was an interactive discussion with Todd Westerhoff, product manager for electronic board systems at Mentor Graphics. Todd made some observations about the way high-performance PCBs are designed today and perhaps the way they should be designed. … Read More
The Tech Week that was February 3-7 2020
In a week where the new coronavirus and it’s impact has dominated the news, here is my weekly summary of the key semiconductor and technology news from around the world that you should know but may have missed.
The new coronavirus in China and worldwide is already causing an impact for the electronics supply chain, potentially affecting… Read More
Rest in Peace Randy Smith (1959-2020)
The semiconductor industry lost another good one last week, my friend, co-worker, and longtime SemiWiki contributor, Randy Smith. Randy published sixty blogs on SemiWiki over the last eight years that have been viewed more than a half million times. That is quite a digital legacy, absolutely.
Like myself, and many other semiconductor… Read More
Good December but March variable due to Coronavirus
- Trend remains positive for 2020 overall
- New tools & EUV suggest better growth in 2020
- Calendar 2019 ends on strong foundry note
KLAC reported revenues of $1.509B and EPS of $2.66 NonGAAP versus street of $1.48B and $2.58. Foundry (TSMC) was obviously the big driver of the quarter and into 2020 as well. Memory remains subdued… Read More
AI Interposer Power Modeling and HBM Power Noise Prediction Studies
I attended a session on 2.5D silicon interposer analysis at DesignCon 2020. Like many presentations at this show, ecosystem collaboration was a focus. In this session, Jinsong Hu (principal application engineer at Cadence) and Yongsong He (senior staff engineer at Enflame Tech) presented approaches for interposer power modeling… Read More
Tesla: Two Heads are Better Than One
Telsa Motors’ stock skyrockets and all observers are shocked and amazed. The shorts that took a multi-billion-dollar hit then double down with their concerns regarding the German gigafactory construction permits or coronavirus or the company’s ability to create demand or fulfill it.
All of these investors are ignoring something… Read More
Should the US Government Invest in Intel?