During the design cycle as tape out approaches, time pressure usually goes up dramatically. To make matters worse the design itself is much larger, because all the block level work is done and there is a requirement to work with the entire database. It feels like it’s time to put aside the garden trowel and start using a steam shovel.… Read More



The Starting Point of Functional Safety Analysis
In the course of building my understanding of functional safety, particularly with respect to ISO 26262, I have developed a better understanding of the design methods used to mitigate safety problems and the various tools and techniques that are applied to measure the impact of those diagnostics against ASIL goals. One area in… Read More
Apple and China to kill Intellectual Property?
The recent (since 2016) news about Apple, China, FTC and other organizations positioning in respect with IP are concerning, as it seems indicating that Intellectual Property in general (Design IP and Technology IP) is at risk. Let’s consider several facts through different cases, involving ARM, Qualcomm, Imagination Technologies… Read More
Fractal Technologies Joins TSMC Open Innovation Platform EDA Alliance
In case you missed it, Fractal is now officially part of the TSMC EDA Alliance. Fractal Crossfire is the leading IP and Library QA tool used by TSMC and many of TSMC’s customers so this is for the greater IP good, absolutely. Fractal has also released a new white paper “Setup Generation for Fractal Crossfire” that we can talk about but… Read More
Our Autonomous Moonshot
Keynoting the TU-Automotive event in Novi, Mich., last week on the 50th anniversary of the assassination of Senator Robert F. Kennedy I took the occasion to note the lofty visions to which Robert and his brother, President John F. Kennedy, aspired. We face our own challenges in the automotive industry today, with an annual global… Read More
The Best of IP at DAC 2018 Conference
Design IP is going well, with 12% YoY growth in 2017, even if the market is about $3.5B. But Design IP is serving a $400B semiconductor market. Can you imagine the future of the semi market if the chip makers couldn’t have access to Design IP? The same is true for EDA: it’s a niche market (CAE revenues was about $3B and IC Physical Design… Read More
Stanford and Semiconductors: A Unique Combination in the 1960s
This is the second in the series of “20 Questions with Wally Rhines”
At 8am on my first day of graduate school at Stanford, I joined the “Structure of Materials” class taught by Craig Barrett, the youngest faculty member in the Materials Science and Engineering Department. Craig had just returned from a post-doc in … Read More
2018 Semiconductor Forecasts Revised Up
Forecasts for 2018 semiconductor market growth have been revised upward from earlier in the year. In January to February 2018, projections ranged from 5.9% from Mike Cowan to our 12% at Semiconductor Intelligence. Forecasts released in March to June range from Gartner’s 11.8% to our 16%. The latest forecasts average an increase… Read More
Foundry Partnership Simplifies Design for Reliability
This builds on a couple of topics I have covered for quite a while from an analysis point of view – integrity and reliability. The power distribution network and some other networks like clock trees are particularly susceptible to both IR-drop and electromigration (EM) problems. The first can lead to intermittent timing failures,… Read More
Looking Ahead: What is Next for IoT
Over the past several years, the number of devices connected via Internet of Things (IoT) has grown exponentially, and it is expected that number will only continue to grow. By 2020, 50 billion connected devices are predicted to exist, thanks to the many new smart devices that have become standard tools for people and businesses… Read More
Should Intel be Split in Half?