I have been saying for years, ever since I started working at VaST, the biggest barrier to adoption of virtual platform technology for what I like to call virtualized software development is the availability of models. If models do not already exist when they are needed there are two issues: it takes money to develop them but, probably… Read More
Kirin 9030 Hints at SMIC's Possible Paths Toward >300 MTr/mm2 Without EUVEarlier this month, TechInsights did a teardown of…Read More
Why TSMC is Known as the Trusted FoundryTaiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) is widely regarded…Read More
Journey Back to 1981: David Patterson Recounts the Birth of RISC and Its Legacy in RISC-VIn a warmly received keynote at the RISC-V…Read More
Assertion-First Hardware Design and Formal Verification ServicesGenerative AI has transformed software development, enabling entire…Read More
TSMC's Customized Technical Documentation Platform Enhances Customer ExperienceTaiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, the world's leading dedicated…Read MoreDFM at SPIE Advance Litho show
This year’s SPIE Advanced Lithography is loaded with interesting keynotes and sessions. To help me narrow down what to see, I spoke with John Sturtevant. John is co-chair of the Design for Manufacturability through Design-Process Integration conference, and the director for technical marketing for RET products at Mentor Graphics.… Read More
Why X-Fab uses 3D Resistance Extraction and Analysis
At DAC in 2011 I visited an EDA company called Silicon Frontline Technology because they offered some 3D field solver tools used to create the highest accuracy netlists that can then be simulated with a SPICE circuit simulator to predict timing, power and IR drop. A recent press release with X-FAB and Silicon Frontline looked interesting… Read More
DVCon: Hardware/software Co-design from a Software Perspective
The EDAC Emerging Companies Comittee (would that be the EDACECC?) is organizing a free panel session one evening at DVCon. It is Monday February 27th from 6pm to 8.30pm. I don’t yet have a room but it will be at the DoubleTree Hotel where DVCon is being held.
EDA companies often address hardware/software co-design from a hardware… Read More
Powering the Platforms: ARM’s 2012 Approach
A client turned me on to a great new book, “The Age of the Platform” by Phil Simon. It’s about how Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google have radically transformed the landscape. For me, it’s not just social networking – it’s social computing, changing how things are designed.
I’m borrowing this right from Phil’s… Read More
The Old Order Changeth
It is interesting watching as changes in technology bring giants to their knees. Far and away the best book on the subject is Clayton Christensen’s The Innovator’s Dilemma. If you haven’t read it then rush out and buy it immediately. In tech, you are not educated if you haven’t.
Two things made me think … Read More
FineSim Webinar
FineSim is Magma’s circuit simulator that has been doing extraordinarily well. In my opinion it is one of the big reasons that Synopsys is acquiring (presumably, still subject to approval of course) Magma. FineSim is especially strong in the memory market with over 70% of the top 5 DRAM manufacturers and the top 10 flash manufacturers… Read More
Virtuoso has got you cornered
Things you don’t know about Virtuoso: we’ve got you cornered.
That is the title on a Cadence blog item last week. It is actually about variability and how to create various corners for simulation and analysis, but given Cadence’s franchise for Virtuoso, its lock-in through SKILL-based PDKs and so forth, it … Read More
Synopsys latest acquisitions: ExpertIO (VIP) and Inventure (IP)… Any counter-attack from Cadence?
Even if ExpertIO acquisition by Synopsys, coming after nSys acquisition a couple of months ago, will not have a major impact on Synopsys’ balance sheet, it will again change the Verification IP market landscape. The acquisition of Inventure, a subsidiary of Zuken, will have a major impact on the Interface IP market, even if it’s… Read More
AMD and GlobalFoundries?
One thing I do as an internationally recognized semiconductor blogger is listen to the quarterly conference calls of companies that drive our industry. TSMC is always interesting, I really like the honesty and vision of Dr. Morris Chang. Cadence is good, I always want to hear what Lip-Bu Tan has to say. Oracle and Larry Ellison, … Read More


Quantum Computing Technologies and Challenges