RISC-V tends to generate excitement over the possibilities for the processor core, any custom instruction extensions, and its attached memory subsystem. Those are all necessary steps to obtaining system-level performance. But is that attention sufficient? Architects who have ventured into larger system-on-chip (SoC) … Read More



The Coming China Chipocalypse – Trade Sanctions Backfire – Chips versus Equipment
- China Chip Sanctions have had opposite of intended effect
- Helps AMAT, LRCX, KLAC & TEL- Hurts Micron and GloFo
- Tsunami of Chinese capacity will hurt memory & 2nd tier chip makers
- The probability of a much longer chip downcycle is increasing
China is cornering the market on Semiconductor equipment
Quarterly reports from… Read More
Accelerating Development for Audio and Vision AI Pipelines
I wrote previously that the debate over which CPU rules the world (Arm versus RISC-V) somewhat misses the forest for the trees in modern systems. This is nowhere more obvious that in intelligent audio and vision: smart doorbells, speakers, voice activated remotes, intelligent earbuds, automotive collision avoidance, self-parking,… Read More
Generative AI for Silicon Design – Article 3 (Simulate My Design)
Generative AI has time and again showcased its power to understand, predict, and explain a myriad of phenomena. Beyond its famed applications in art and text, it’s making ripples in the niche realm of hardware engineering. In this article, our exploration focuses on the potential of Generative AI to comprehend and predict… Read More
Uniquely Understanding Challenges of Chip Design and Verification
Jean-Marie Brunet is Vice President and General Manager of Siemens Hardware-Assisted Verification. He and I spoke recently about how different his hardware group is from the rest of the software-centric EDA product space and why a hardware-oriented EDA vendor like Siemens fully understands the challenges of the chip design… Read More
New STA Features from Cadence
Static Timing Analysis (STA) has been an EDA tool category for many years now, yet with each new generation of smaller foundry process nodes come new physical effects that impact timing, requiring new analysis features to be added. For advanced process nodes, there are five different types of analysis that must be included when… Read More
Successful 3DIC design requires an integrated approach
While the leap from traditional SoC/IC designs to Three-Dimensional Integrated Circuits (3DICs) designs brings new benefits and opportunities, it also introduces new challenges. The benefits include performance, power efficiency, footprint reduction and cost savings. The challenges span design, verification, thermal… Read More
Podcast EP193: A Look at the Engineering Tracks for DAC 2024 with Frank Schirrmeister
Dan is joined by Frank Schirrmeister. Frank is vice president of solutions and business development at Arteris. He leads activities for industry verticals, including automotive and enterprise computing and technology horizontals like artificial intelligence, machine learning, and safety. For DAC 2024, Frank is the vice… Read More
Automotive-grade MIPI PHY IP drives multi-sensor solutions
Sensors are critical to every new automotive design, whether created for a driver or self-driving. Frame rates and resolution for car, truck, and SUV imaging systems continue to rise. Getting data from each sensor to a location in the vehicle with sufficient processing power may be challenging, especially when AI inference algorithms… Read More
IROC at the TSMC Open Innovation Ecosystem Platform
Radiation is everywhere. Radiation contributes to Single Event Effects (SEE) in semiconductor circuits and packaging. As chips get larger, containing more functions, and using lower voltage to reduce power, SEEs have become more significant to product reliability, Failures In Time rates (FIT), and meantime between failures… Read More
TSMC N3 Process Technology (3nm) Wiki