In a recent post, I discussed how Samtec is fueling the AI revolution. In that post, I talked about how smart everything seems to be everywhere, changing the way we work, the way we think about our health and ultimately improving life on the planet. These are lofty statements, but the evidence is growing that the newest wave of applications… Read More



Enjoy the Super-Cycle it’ll Crash in 2023!
At our January 2021 industry update webinar, 20 months ago, we forecast “There’s no tight capacity relief before 2022 at the earliest” whilst simultaneously cautioning “Enjoy the super-cycle … it’ll crash in 2023!” At the time, we were dismissed as being ‘ever optimistic’ for the first prognosis and ‘losing the plot’ for the … Read More
Flex Logix: Industry’s First AI Integrated Mini-ITX based System
As the market for edge processing is growing, the performance, power and cost requirements of these applications are getting increasingly demanding. These applications have to work on instant data and make decisions in real time at the user end. The applications span the consumer, commercial and industrial market segments.… Read More
Semiconductor Decline in 2023
The semiconductor market dropped 0.8 percent in 2Q 2022 versus 1Q 2022, according to WSTS. The 2Q 2022 decline followed a 0.5% quarter-to-quarter decline in 1Q 2022. The 2Q 2022 revenues of the top 15 semiconductor suppliers match the overall market results, with a 1% decline from 1Q 2022. The results by company were mixed. Memory… Read More
Load-Managing Verification Hardware Acceleration in the Cloud
There’s a reason the verification hardware accelerator business is growing so impressively. Modern SoCs – now routinely multi-billion gate devices – must be verified/validated against massively demanding test plans, requiring high levels of test coverage. Use cases extend all the way up to firmware, OSes, even application… Read More
The Truly Terrifying Truth about Tesla
When I think about Tesla’s impact on the wider automotive industry, I conjure images of auto CEOs waking up in the middle of the night in cold sweats. It isn’t just that Tesla virtually or actually gets away with murder, it’s that the level of impunity is almost completely unchallenged by regulators and is actually celebrated by consumers… Read More
Die-to-Die Interconnects using Bunch of Wires (BoW)
Chiplets are a popular and trending topic in the semiconductor trade press, and I read about SoC disaggregation at shows like ISSCC, Hot Chips, DAC and others. Once an SoC is disaggregated, the next challenge is deciding on the die-to-die interconnect approach. The Open Compute Project (OCP) started 10 years ago as a way to share… Read More
Verification IP Hastens the Design of CXL 3.0
Although version 2.0 of the Computer Express Link (CXL) standard is just making it into new designs, the next generation, version 3.0, has been approved and is now ready for designers to implement the new silicon and firmware needed to meet the new standard’s performance specifications. CXL, an open industry-standard interconnect,… Read More
Ansys’ Emergence as a Tier 1 EDA Player— and What That Means for 3D-IC
Over its 40+ year history, electronic design automation (EDA) has seen many companies rise, fall, and merge. In the beginning, in the 1980s, the industry was dominated by what came to be known as the big three — Daisy Systems, Mentor Graphics, and Valid Logic (the infamous “DMV”). The Big 3 has morphed over the years, eventually settling… Read More
Finally, A Serious Attack on Debug Productivity
Verification technologies have progressed in almost all domains over the years. We’re now substantially more productive in creating tests for block, SoC and hybrid software/hardware verification. These tests provide better coverage through randomization and formal modeling. And verification engines are faster – substantially… Read More
Should Intel be Split in Half?