A few times a year, I check in with AMIQ EDA co-founder Cristian Amitroaie to see what’s new with their company and the integrated development environment (IDE) market for hardware design and verification. Usually he suggests a topic for us to discuss, but this time I specifically wanted to learn more about the version of their Design… Read More




Calibre: Early Design LVS and ERC Checking gets Interesting
The last thing you want when taping out a design is to hit large numbers of violations in signoff checks that could have been flushed out and resolved in earlier flow iterations. For implementation flows (floorplanning, synthesis, place and route), it’s usual to do a lot of flow flushing work early in the design cycle and iteratively… Read More
Podcast EP124: A Look at the Design and Simulation Side of Keysight with Niels Faché
Dan is joined by Niels Faché, vice president and general manager, Design and Simulation at Keysight Technologies. Niels is responsible for Keysight’s design and simulation portfolio.
Dan explores the high-speed, high-frequency design and simulation capabilities of Keysight Technologies with Niels. A history of the products,… Read More
AMAT – Backlog buffers downcycle- still fighting shortages – WFE down in 2023
-AMAT put up good numbers despite slowing cycle
-Growing backlog will help them manage declining orders
-Parts shortages still haunt but improving for 2-4 more quarters
-2023 will be down- too early to tell how much- 2024 who knows
Good numbers but already adjusted for China
Applied put up revenue of $6.7B and EPS of $2.03 versus … Read More
Semiconductors Down in 2nd Half 2022
The semiconductor market declined 6.3% in 3Q 2022 from 2Q 2022, according to WSTS. Based on the outlook for 4Q 2022, the second half of 2022 will be down over 10% from the first half of 2022. The 2H 2022 decline will be the largest half-year decline since a 21% drop in the first half of 2009 versus the second half of 2008 during the great … Read More
Podcast EP123: The Breadth and Power of Ceva’s IP and Platforms
Dan is joined by Nir Shapira, business development director in CEVA Mobile Broadband BU. Nir has been in the communication industry for more than 25 years. He has made significant contributions to standardizations, notably 802.11, and has dozens of patents in the field of communications.
Nir discusses the impact Ceva IP and … Read More
2023: Welcome to the Danger Zone
I just got this notice from my good friend and fellow sailor Rich Curtin. The Silicon Catalyst events are the best open networking events in Silicon Valley, absolutely. And this one includes another good friend Wally Rhines, the most interesting man in semiconductors, so you don’t want to miss this. The live event will definitely… Read More
Ask Not How FPGA Prototyping Differs From Emulation – Ask How FPGA Prototyping and Emulation Can Benefit You
The differences between commercial FPGA Prototyping (“Prototyping”) and Emulation have been well documented by the purveyors of commercial Prototyping and Emulation solutions, and the technical media. What has received less coverage is how Prototyping benefits differ from Emulation benefits. Both are intended to reduce… Read More
It’s Always About the Yield
Whether it is the stock market or the semiconductor market, the name of the game is yield. In semiconductors, yield has to do with minimizing scrap costs in all phases of manufacturing. This means squeezing as many good dies from a wafer as well as maximizing the number of good assembled/packaged chips that pass system level testing.… Read More
Podcast EP122: IMEC’s Unique Imaging Technology for Medical Apllications
Dan is joined by Dr. Xavier Rottenberg, who has been at IMEC Leuven since 2000, where he contributes to research in the field of RF, RF-MEMS, photonics and microsystems modelling integration.
Dan explores some of the unique imaging technology being developed at IMEC. Manufacturing methods to implement large sensors cost effectively… Read More
Should Intel be Split in Half?