As I travel a lot in the last 15 years and visited customers as well as friends I was many times invited to talk to the Layout teams. The main purpose is always to encourage automation. So I developed a presentation related to market trend, technology trends, and latest tools advancements. In many cases I present updates from DAC (Design… Read More





Life Imitates Art
Neural nets, neuromorphic computing and other manifestations of artificial intelligence are popular topics these days. You might think of this as art (as in the art of computing) imitating life. What about the other direction – does life ever imitate art in this same sense? A professor at ASU’s Biodesign Institute thinks it can,… Read More
Fusing CMOS IC and MEMS Design for IoT Edge Devices
In my 34 years in IC and EDA, it never ceases to amaze me as to how ingenious designers can be with what is given them. Mentor, a Siemens business, has released a wonderful white paper that is proof of this yet again. The white paper steps through how one of their customers, MEMSIC, used the Tanner tool suite to develop a combination CMOS… Read More
QCOM vs Apple and Everyone Else!
Having worked with Qualcomm in many different capacities during my career I can tell you there are some amazing people in and around that company. I am always positive when people I know are considering working there and QCOM people who leave are an easy reference for other jobs. Unfortunately, I lost respect for the QCOM higher ups… Read More
How to protect #IoT devices from software attacks!
#IoT devices are supposed to function properly in the field for many years without human intervention. Given that we know in advance that each #IoT node is going to be hacked in the future, it is essential that some trusted code be isolated from that hack to restore the #IoT application code to a known good state.… Read More
Uber is a Cancer!
Uber’s marketing and public relations afterburners are running at full blast with a new CEO, new driver rules and promises to make amends and “turn the company around” – whatever that means. If Uber is sincere about making changes it may find itself at war with its own nature.
Uber is a liar and a thief.… Read More
Embedded FPGA IP as a Post-Silicon Debugger
The hardware functionality of a complex SoC is difficult to verify. Embedded software developed for a complex, multi-core SoC is extremely difficult to verify. An RTOS may need to be ported and validated. Application software needs to be developed, and optimized for performance. Sophisticated methodologies are employed to… Read More
Solido Debuts New ML Tool at TSMC OIP!
The TSMC OIP Ecosystem Forum is upon us and what better place to debut a new tool to prevent silicon failures. Solido Design Automation just launched its latest tool – PVTMC Verifier – and will be demonstrating it in their booth at OIP. This is the third product that was developed within its Machine Learning Labs and is… Read More
Webinar: Aiding ASIC Design Partitioning for multi-FPGA Prototyping
The advantages of prototyping a hardware design on a FPGA platform are widely recognized, for software development, debug and regression in particular while the ultimate ASIC hardware is still in development. And if your design will fit into a single FPGA, this is not an especially challenging task (as long as you know your way … Read More
Can the iPhone rollout lift the industry?
We are in the midst of a number of cross currents buffeting the industry. The Korea risk seems to have escalated again and our government has thrown fuel on the fire by threatening trade agreements at the most inopportune timing possible. However we are also a week away from the roll out of one of the most anticipated Iphones ever which… Read More
Should the US Government Invest in Intel?