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Arm Inches Closer to Supercomputing

Arm Inches Closer to Supercomputing
by Bernard Murphy on 12-04-2019 at 6:00 am

Summit supercomputer

When it comes to Arm, we think mostly of phones and the “things” in the IoT. We know they’re in a lot of other places too, such as communications infrastructure but that’s a kind of diffuse image – “yeah, they’re everywhere”. We like easy-to-understand targets: phones, IoT devices, we get those. More recently Arm started to talk about… Read More


Webinar on coping with the complexities of 3D NAND design

Webinar on coping with the complexities of 3D NAND design
by admin on 12-03-2019 at 10:00 am

In order to beat Moore’s Law NAND Flash memories have moved from a planar topology to 3D construction. This allows for increased memory sized in much the same way a multistory building provides more building square footage on the same size building lot. Just like in building construction, adding a third dimension to the mix increases… Read More


Why is Intel Still Short on Chips?

Why is Intel Still Short on Chips?
by Daniel Nenni on 12-03-2019 at 6:00 am

Intel is again apologizing to customers for 14nm chip shortages. As a result PC makers are revising down revenue expectations for 2020. Something does not smell right here. I have also read that due to the continued shortages Intel will be second sourcing CPU chips to Samsung 14nm. This smells even worse, absolutely.

First and foremost,… Read More


ASML Will Take Semiconductor Equipment Lead from Applied Materials in 2019

ASML Will Take Semiconductor Equipment Lead from Applied Materials in 2019
by Robert Castellano on 12-02-2019 at 10:00 am

For the first time since 1990, Applied Materials is poised to lose its lead in the semiconductor equipment market, according to my recently published report “The Global Semiconductor Equipment: Markets, Market Shares, Market Forecasts.

Applied Materials, which has been losing market share in the wafer front end (WFE) equipment… Read More


Intel vs AMD vs Google vs Amazon vs NUVIA

Intel vs AMD vs Google vs Amazon vs NUVIA
by Daniel Nenni on 11-29-2019 at 6:00 am

Arguably the cloud was the quickest road to riches for chip designers large and small. As an emerging company, if you wanted to raise money just put “Datacenter” in your pitch deck and you were assured millions. You would be competing with semiconductor’s version of David and Goliath (AMD and Intel) but that was a good thing, right?… Read More


Webinar Recap: IP Security Threats in your SoC

Webinar Recap: IP Security Threats in your SoC
by Daniel Payne on 11-28-2019 at 10:00 am

Methodics Security SoC

Three years ago my youngest son purchased a $17 smart watch on eBay, but then my oldest son read an article warning about how that watch would sync with your phone, then send all of your contact info to an address in China. My youngest son then wisely turned the watch off, and never used it again. Hackers have been able to spoof and hide Read More


GM’s CES No Show: EmBARRAssing!

GM’s CES No Show: EmBARRAssing!
by Roger C. Lanctot on 11-28-2019 at 6:00 am

After failing in 2017 and 2018 to put a single woman on-stage to deliver a high profile keynote, the Consumer Technology Association featured four female keynoters in 2019. Until recently, two women were on the docket for the 2020 show in January, but news arrived last week that General Motors’ CEO Mary Barra had cancelled… Read More


Webinar Recap: Challenges of Autonomous Vehicle Validation

Webinar Recap: Challenges of Autonomous Vehicle Validation
by Daniel Payne on 11-27-2019 at 10:00 am

Waymo Jaguar

Autonomous vehicle progress is in the daily news, so it’s quite exciting to watch it develop with the help of SoC design, sensors, actuators and software from engineering teams spanning the entire globe. Tesla vehicles have reached Level 2 autonomy, Audi e-tron is at Level 3, and Waymo nearly at Level 5 with robot taxis being… Read More


MEMS Actuation and the Art of Prototyping

MEMS Actuation and the Art of Prototyping
by Bernard Murphy on 11-27-2019 at 5:00 am

Thermal actuator prototyping

I mentioned a while back that I’m really getting into the role that sensors play in our new hyper-connected world – in the IoT, intelligent cars, homes, cities, industry, utilities, medicine, agriculture, etc, etc. If we can think of a way to sense it and connect it, someone is probably already doing it. But there’s more to … Read More


Mentor unpacks LVS and LVL issues around advanced packaging

Mentor unpacks LVS and LVL issues around advanced packaging
by Tom Simon on 11-26-2019 at 6:00 am

Innovations in packaging have played an important role in improving system performance and area utilization. Advances like 2.5D interposers and fan-out wafer-level packaging (FOWLP) have allowed mixed dies to be used in a single package and have dramatically reduced the number of connections that need to go all the way to the… Read More