As predicted, the rise of cryptocurrency valuation has captured the attention of cybercriminals. New hacks, thefts, misuse, and fraud schemes are on the rise. Where there is value, there will be a proportional risk of theft.Criminals always pursue and exploit systems where they can achieve personal financial gain. It is the … Read More




What’s old is new again – Analog Computing
Once in a while I like to write on a fun, off-beat topic. My muse today is analog computing, a domain that some of us antiques in the industry recall with fondness, though sadly in my case without hands-on experience. Analog computers exploit the continuous nature of analog signals together with a variety of transforms to represent… Read More
IBM Plays With The AI Giants With New, Scalable And Distributed Deep Learning Software
I’ve been following IBM’s AI efforts with interest for a quite a while now. In my opinion, the company jump-started the current cycle of AI with the introduction of Watson back in the 2000s and has steadily been ramping up its efforts since then. Most recently, I wrote about the launch of PowerAI, IBM’s software toolkit solution to… Read More
HDMI 2.1 Delivers 48.0 Gbps & Supports Dynamic HDR
You may or may not have bought HDMI-equipped device for black Friday or during year end break, but you TV set (or/and you PC) are certainly HDMI-powered, like the 750 million HDMI-equipped devices sold in 2016. In fact, cumulated shipment of HDMI-equipped devices has reached 6 BILLION since the protocol introduction in 2003! HDMI… Read More
2017 in Review and 2018 Forecast
This has been an amazing year for me both personally and professionally. Personally we are now empty nest and have our first grandchild. SemiWiki is prospering, a company that I have been involved with for ten years (Solido Design) had a very nice exit, and my time promoting semiconductor stocks to Wall Street paid off with the PHLX… Read More
Why Bitcoin is the largest Ponzi scheme in human history
During the late ’90s, Silicon Valley venture capitalists and New York City investment bankers used phrases such as “monetizing eyeballs,” “stickiness,” and “B2C” to justify the ridiculous valuations of Internet companies. They claimed conventional methods were inapplicable in valuing the dot-com companies — which had no… Read More
Autonomous Vehicles Upending Automotive Design Process
The automotive industry has a history of bringing about disruptive technological advances. One only needs to look at the invention of the assembly line by Henry Ford to understand the origins of this phenomenon. Today we stand on the brink of a massive change in how cars operate and consequently how they are built. A number of automotive… Read More
A Picture is worth a 1,000 words
Semiconductor IP re-use is a huge part of the productivity gains in SoC designs, so instead of starting from a clean slate most chip engineers are re-using cells, blocks, modules and even sub-systems from previous designs in order to meet their schedule and stay competitive in the market place. But what happens when you intend to… Read More
Lipstick on the Digital Pig
I have a lot of friends in the real estate industry, and two of the most common sales tactics are to create “curb appeal,” and to “stage” the interior of the residence being sold. Curb appeal, of course, refers to making the home looks as appealing as possible upon first impression. Update the landscaping. Add flowers. Make sure the… Read More
Using Sequential Testing to Shorten Monte Carlo Simulations
When working on an analog design, after initial design specs have been met, it is useful to determine if the design meets specs out to 3 or 4 sigma based on process variation. This can serve as a useful step before going any further. It might not be a coincidence that foundries base their Cpk on 3-sigma. To refresh, Cpk is the ratio of the… Read More
Should the US Government Invest in Intel?