When discussing FPGA-based prototyping, we often focus on how to pour IP from a formative SoC design into one or more FPGAs so it can be explored and verified before heading off to a foundry where design mistakes get expensive. There’s also the software development use case, jumpstarting coding for the SoC before silicon … Read More



IC Layout Symmetry Challenges
Many types of designs, including analog designs, MEMs, and image sensors, require electrically matched configurations. This symmetry has a huge impact on the robustness of the design across process variations, and its performance. Having an electrically matched layout basically means having a symmetric layout. To check … Read More
Verifying 10+ Billion-Gate Designs Requires Distinct, Scalable Hardware Emulation Architecture
In a two-part series, Lauro Rizzatti examines why three kinds of hardware-assisted verification engines are a must have for today’s semiconductor designs. To do so, he interviewed Siemens EDA’s Vijay Chobisa and Juergen Jaeger to learn more about the Veloce hardware-assisted verification systems.
What follows is part one,… Read More
GM: Where an Option is Not an Option
How does a General Motors executive react when they get a transfer to work at OnStar? “What am I going to tell my partner?”
Twenty-six years after its founding, OnStar remains an appendage to GM – a team set apart from the heart and soul of the larger company. Team members assert that the group is profitable, thanks to millions of GM… Read More
C-V2X: Talking Cars: Toil & Trouble
Last year, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission sought to resolve the lingering dispute over the use of 75MHs of Wi-Fi spectrum in the 5.9MHz range, previously allocated to the automotive industry for safety applications, by designating 45MHz of that spectrum for unlicensed use while preserving 30MHz for automotive … Read More
Podcast EP103: A Look at the Game-Changing Technology Being Built by Luminous Computing
Dan is joined by Michael Hochberg, president at Luminous Computing. His career has spanned the space between fundamental research and commercialization for over 20 years. He founded four silicon photonics companies garnering a total exit value of over a billion dollars.
Dan explores the computing technology being built by … Read More
2022 Semiconductor Supercycle and 2023 Crash Scenario
Charles Shi, semiconductor analyst at Needham & Company, an US-based investment bank and asset management firm, hosted an expert call on semiconductor cycles with Malcolm Penn, Founder and CEO of Future Horizons on 18 August 2022, with over 100 financial analysts in attendance. The following bulletin is a summary of the… Read More
Automotive Semiconductor Shortage Over?
Several signs point to an easing of the shortages of semiconductors for automotive applications. However, the production of light vehicles will likely remain below full potential through at least 2023. LMC Automotive’s July forecast of light vehicle production called for 81.7 million units in 2022, up 2% from 2021. LMC’s January… Read More
Enhanced X-NAND flash memory architecture promises faster, denser memories
Although the high-performance X-NAND memory cell and architecture were first introduced in 2020 by Neo Semiconductor, designers at Neo haven’t rested on that accomplishment and recently updated the cell and the architecture in a second-generation implementation to achieve 20X the performance of conventional quad-level-cell… Read More
Getting Ahead with Semiconductor Manufacturing Equipment and Related Plasma Reactors
Advanced semiconductor fabrication technology is what makes it possible to pack more and more transistors into a sq.mm of a wafer. The rapidly increasing demand for advanced-process-based chips has created huge market opportunities for semiconductor manufacturing equipment vendors. According to SEMI, worldwide sales … Read More
Weebit Nano Moves into the Mainstream with Customer Adoption