For decades, chipmakers improved computing performance largely by putting more capable circuitry on a piece of silicon. That remains important, but AI is exposing its limits. Large models demand enormous amounts of data movement, sustained power and effective cooling. A fast processor cannot deliver its full benefit if memory… Read More
TSMC’s AI Design Kit: Bringing Agentic AI Into Chip DesignTSMC is introducing an AI Design Kit, or…Read More
OpenAI and Synopsys Announce GPT-Synopsys: Why AI-Powered Chip Design MattersWow, OpenAI and Synopsys just announced a multiyear…Read More
Why the energy sector must plan for post-quantum cyber security nowIn a September 2026 World Economic Forum article,…Read More
TSMC OIP Ecosystem Forum 2026: Broadcom’s View of ASICs and EcosystemsI spent a significant part of my career…Read More
The Pivotal Moments That Gave Rise to Silicon ValleyThe little-known decisions and breakthroughs—and the remarkable role…Read MoreTSMC’s AI Design Kit: Bringing Agentic AI Into Chip Design
TSMC is introducing an AI Design Kit, or ADK, to help artificial intelligence tools make better use of its semiconductor manufacturing knowledge. The idea is to give AI agents that run chip-design workflows a technology-specific foundation, so they can adjust designs toward performance, power and area targets with less manual… Read More
OpenAI and Synopsys Announce GPT-Synopsys: Why AI-Powered Chip Design Matters
Wow, OpenAI and Synopsys just announced a multiyear partnership to develop GPT-Synopsys, a specialized artificial intelligence model for semiconductor design. The agreement combines OpenAI’s frontier models with Synopsys’ electronic design automation software and engineering expertise. Its ambition is to help engineers… Read More
Why the energy sector must plan for post-quantum cyber security now
In a September 2026 World Economic Forum article, Ali El Kaafarani argues that energy companies should begin preparing their systems for post-quantum cryptography now. The reason is practical: power infrastructure lasts for decades, while replacing its security can take years. Equipment purchased today may still be operating… Read More
TSMC OIP Ecosystem Forum 2026: Broadcom’s View of ASICs and Ecosystems
I spent a significant part of my career in the ASIC business. This segment of semiconductors has always been challenging, difficult and invigorating. There is something special about delivering a working custom chip that enables your customer to bring a world-changing product to market. It has always been a highly competitive… Read More
The Pivotal Moments That Gave Rise to Silicon Valley
The little-known decisions and breakthroughs—and the remarkable role of Robert Noyce—that helped shape the modern semiconductor industry
by Sunil Mehta
When people tell the story of how Silicon Valley came into being, they usually begin with a familiar sequence of events.
The transistor was invented at Bell Labs. William Shockley… Read More
SiFive and AMD Bring ROCm to RISC-V Datacenter Servers—and Why It Matters
SiFive and AMD demonstrated an AI workload that brings together two open technologies: the RISC-V processor architecture and AMD’s ROCm GPU software platform. At the AI Infra Summit on September 15, 2026, the companies showed ROCm 10.0 running on SiFive’s BigSky datacenter development server. SiFive P870-D CPUs served as the… Read More
Quantum Equivalence Checking. Innovation in Verification
Can quantum computing have any relevance to EDA? This month’s paper suggests it might have a role someday, in accelerating one of the most fundamental of EDA algorithms: SAT. Paul Cunningham (GM, Verification at Cadence), Raúl Camposano (Silicon Catalyst, entrepreneur, former Synopsys CTO and lecturer at Stanford, EE292A)… Read More
Why Advanced Chip Packaging Is Becoming a Design Problem
As chipmakers put more computing power into a single system, the challenge extends beyond making individual chips faster. They must connect multiple chips, memory stacks, power supplies, and sometimes optical components in a compact package. In the2026 TSMC OIP Forum talk “Addressing Inter-Die Complexity for 3D Multi-Die… Read More
Pollen Metrology: From a Decade-Long Bet to a Proven AI Platform for Semiconductor Manufacturing
Recently, I had the opportunity to speak with Johann Foucher, founder and CEO of Pollen Metrology, a French company whose journey offers a rare vantage point on how artificial intelligence is reshaping semiconductor manufacturing from the inside out. What makes Pollen Metrology’s story compelling isn’t just … Read More


Intel Foundry: AI performance now depends on the whole system