Caching intent largely hasn’t changed since we started using the concept – to reduce average latency in memory accesses and to reduce average power consumption in off-chip reads and writes. The architecture started out simple enough, a small memory close to a processor, holding most-recently accessed instructions and data … Read More




Semiconductors back to growth in 2020
The global semiconductor market is headed for the largest decline in 18 years. The market dropped 32% in 2001 when the Internet bubble burst. The 2019 decline should be around 15%, the third largest annual drop after 2001 and a 17% drop in 1985. The current weakness is largely due to excess memory capacity (DRAM and NAND flash) relative… Read More
Webinar of Recent NCTU CDM/ESD Keynote Talk by Dundar Dumlugol – Thursday September 26th
With many design teams still searching for an effective means of identifying Charged Device Model (CDM) issues early in the design process, it comes as no surprise that events on this topic generate a lot of interest and are well attended. In July Magwel’s CEO Dr. Dundar Dumlugol had the honor of being invited by Professor Ming-Dou… Read More
Cadence Celsius Heats Up 3D System-Level Electro-Thermal Modeling Market
A few years back people were saying that the “EDA” problem was solved and that design tools had become commodity. At the same time people hailed ADAS, smart homes, mobile communication and AI as the frontiers of electronics. Perhaps it could be said that layout tools, routers, placers, and circuit simulators had largely matured… Read More
AI Inference at the Edge – Architecture and Design
In the old days, product architects would throw a functional block diagram “over the wall” to the design team, who would plan the physical implementation, analyze the timing of estimated critical paths, and forecast the signal switching activity on representative benchmarks. A common reply back to the architects was, “We’ve… Read More
Actel Goes Public – The IPO
In 1990 Xilinx notified us that they believed Actel was infringing a patent that had just been issued to them. My immediate thoughts – the patent system is all screwed up! Actel had been developing our product for five years. We had been shipping it for a year and a half. During all that time, we were totally unaware that there was … Read More
Criminals Luring in Bitcoin Sellers to Launder Money
Cybercriminals are luring in bitcoin holders with the promise of easy money if they become a mule to convert stolen assets into clean currency. The reality is these volunteers will just join the ranks of other victims. But that is not stopping people from joining up to replace other mules who have paid the price.
Criminals are selling… Read More
Forget about 5G
There is a vast amount of hubbub in the automotive industry regarding the onset of 5G technology. Industry excitement is manifest in the 5G Automotive Association (5GAA) which is facilitating collaboration (among 120+ member) between the automotive industry and the wireless industry, possibly for the first time ever.
For … Read More
Chapter Eleven – International Semiconductor Competition
Semiconductor industry evolution was largely a U.S. phenomenon. While there were important contributions made by persons all over the world, the basic technology grew from the invention of the transistor at Bell Labs which was licensed broadly in the U.S. That created a level playing field for all who wanted to become producers. … Read More
Is Samsung having problems with 7NM? Do long lines at TSMC prove that?
Reports of increasing TSMC 7NM lead times
There have been a number of increasing media reports about lengthening leads times for TSMC 7NM process. From what we have been able to determine its not due to TSMC having a yield bust or other production issues, it is simply one of stronger than expected demand.
There have been reports of … Read More
Weebit Nano Moves into the Mainstream with Customer Adoption