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
Register Management is the Foundation of Every Chip
Virtually every chip today runs software. And that software needs to interact with and control the hardware on the chip. There are typically many interfaces to manage as well as dedicated hardware accelerators to coordinate. In fact, many of those hardware accelerators are present only to support the execution of the software… Read More
Where is the Monument of the Silicon Glen?
In 1991, I arrived in Glasgow to become a lecturer in Glasgow University, attracted by the Silicon Glen – the heart of semiconductor manufacturing in Europe. Here are few facts:
- The larges semiconductor plant in Europe at that time was the NEC DRAM manufacturing site in Livingstone. When I visited the plant, I was mesmerized
Siemens EDA Automotive Insights, for Analysts
There is a classical approach to EDA marketing, and semiconductor marketing at times, which aims exclusively at technical customers and the businesspeople immediately around those experts. The style is understandable and necessary. Those folks are the direct influencers and buyers of the products we are promoting, so we must… Read More
Tessent Streaming Scan Network Brings Hierarchical Scan Test into the Modern Age
Remember when you had to use dial up internet or parallel printer cables connected directly to the printer to print something? Well even if you don’t remember these things, you know that now there is a better way. Regrettably, the prevalent methods used for hierarchical Design for Test (DFT) still look at lot like this – SoC level … Read More
A MIPI CSI-2/MIPI D-PHY Solution for AI Edge Devices
In late September, the MIPI Alliance held their DevCon conference as a virtual event. There were several excellent presentations at the conference. One of those was titled “A MIPI CSI-2/MIPI D-PHY Solution for AI Edge Devices” by Ashraf Takla of Mixel. Looking at the daily volume of technology news about applications moving to… Read More
Revisiting EUV Lithography: Post-Blur Stochastic Distributions
In previous articles, I had looked at EUV stochastic behavior [1-2], primarily in terms of the low photon density resulting in shot noise, described by the Poisson distribution [3]. The role of blur to help combat the randomness of EUV photon absorption and secondary electron generation and migration was also recently considered… Read More
US Supply Chain Data Request Elicits a Range of Responses, from Tight-Lipped to Uptight
TSMC drew the ire of Chinese state media last week after it complied with the US Department of Commerce request to submit supply chain data by the November 8 deadline.
The Chinese reports, which called it an act of “surrender” to US hegemony, were careful in laying blame on Taipei for caving in to Washington, rather than pointing fingers… Read More
Intel’s Pearl Harbor Moment