I recall meeting with Solido at DAC back in 2009, learning about their Variation Designer tool that allowed circuit designers to quickly find out how their designs performed under the effects of process variation, in effect finding the true corners of the process. Under the hood the Solido tool was using Machine Learning (ML) techniques… Read More


Numerical Sizing and Tuning Shortens Analog Design Cycles
By any measure analog circuit design is a difficult and complex process. This point is driven home in a recent webinar by MunEDA. Michael Pronath, VP Products and Solutions at MunEDA, lays out why, even with the assistance of simulators, analog circuit sizing and tuning can consume weeks of time in what can potentially be a non-convergent… Read More
Supply Chain Breaks Under Strain Causes Miss, Weak Guide, Repairs Needed
-AMAT -Supply chain can’t keep up with expanding business
-May be longer term issue which will limit upside
-Being tough on vendors may have come back to bite Applied
-Fixing supply chain will likely take longer than the current cycle
Supply Chain issues come home to roost
Applied Materials missed on both earnings and revenues… Read More
The Story of Ultra-Wideband Part 6: The Secret Revealed
This 6-article series started by asking the question: Why did Apple leap ahead of demand in 2019 by designing a UWB transceiver into the iPhone 11? Then in early 2020, why was UWB chip supplier Decawave acquired for an estimated $400-$500 Million? Why are automakers GM, Ford, Toyota, Nissan, Honda, Hyundai, Volkswagen, BMW and … Read More
Podcast EP50: Perforce at DAC
Dan and Mike are joined by Simon Butler, general manager of the Methodics Business Unit at Perforce. Some history of DAC is discussed; what it’s like attending the show both as a small company and a larger one. The products Perforce will showcase at DAC this year are then discussed, The breadth of technology to support design… Read More
2021 Semiconductors Finishing Strong with 2022 Moderating
The semiconductor market in 3rd quarter 2021 was $144.8 billion, according to WSTS, up 7.4% from the prior quarter and up 27.6% from a year ago. The strong year-to-year growth was a slight deceleration from 30.4% in 2nd quarter 2021. The major memory companies reported very healthy 3Q21 revenue increases versus 2Q21 with all of … Read More
CEO Interview: Charbel Rizk of Oculi
Charbel Rizk is CEO of Oculi®, a spinout from Johns Hopkins University, a fabless semiconductor startup commercializing technology to address the high power and latency challenges of vision technology. Dr. Rizk recognized these as barriers to effective AI in his years of experience as a Principal Systems Engineer, Lead Innovator,… Read More
Synopsys Expands into Silicon Lifecycle Management
I spoke with Steve Pateras of Synopsys last week to better understand what was happening with their Silicon Lifecycle Management vision, and I was reminded of a Forbes article from last year: Never Heard of Silicon Lifecycle Management? Join the Club. At least two major EDA vendors are now using the relatively new acronym SLM, and… Read More
A Flexible and Efficient Edge-AI Solution Using InferX X1 and InferX SDK
The Linley Group held its Fall Processor Conference 2021 last week. There were several informative talks from various companies updating the audience on the latest research and development work happening in the industry. The presentations were categorized as per their focus, under eight different sessions. The sessions topics… Read More
Podcast EP49: Where Semifore fits in the design flow
Dan and Mike are joined by Rich Weber, co-founder and CEO of Semifore. Rich describes what the hardware/software interface is, where it fits in the design flow and the importance of a well-documented and robust design. He touches on industry standards, where they help and how Semifore’s products complete the flow. RIch … Read More
Intel’s Pearl Harbor Moment