Our latest book has finally been published! A PDF version of “Prototypical II – The Practice of FPGA Prototyping for SoC Design” is now available in the SemiWiki book section. The first book “Prototypical – The Emergence of FPGA Prototyping for SoC Design” was published in 2016 and a lot … Read More





KLA – Chip process control outgrowing fabrication tools as capacity needs grow
-KLA dominates process control like ASML dominates litho
-Industry in “panic mode” over capacity drives process control
-Like others, KLA tool supplies are in demand & tight supply
-Balance of 2021 “filled out” – now booking for 2022
Solid numbers and very solid guide for a better second … Read More
LAM – Surfing the Spending Tsunami in Semiconductors – Trailing Edge Terrific
-$80B + in WFE with strong back half in 2021
-Trailing edge strength adds to overall great demand
-Supply side headwinds require effort- Malaysia now open
-It just comes down to execution which Lam has done well
Nice beat and sandbagged guide
As Lam has done consistently for many quarters now, they beat numbers with Revenues of $4.15B… Read More
Podcast EP31: Interview with Dr. Rosemary Francis, Chief Scientist at Altair
Dan is joined by Dr. Rosemary Francis. Rosemary was the managing director and CEO of Ellexus Ltd. before its acquisition by Altair. Dan explores the I/O profiling technology Ellexus brought to Altair, it’s impact and the implications for the future. A behind-the-scenes view of the acquisition is also provided.
Dr. Rosemary… Read More
Highlights of the “Intel Accelerated” Roadmap Presentation
Introduction
Intel recently provided a detailed silicon process and advanced packaging technology roadmap presentation, entitled “Intel Accelerated”. The roadmap timeline extended out to 2024, with discussions of Intel client, data center, and GPU product releases, and especially, the underlying technologies to be … Read More
Cerebrus, the ML-based Intelligent Chip Explorer from Cadence
Electronic design automation (EDA) has come a long way from its beginnings. It has enabled chip engineers from specifying designs directly in layout format during the early days to today’s capture in RTL format. Every advance in EDA has made the task of designing a chip easier and increased the design team productivity, enabling… Read More
SoC Vulnerabilities
As I read both the popular and technical press each week I often see articles about computer systems being hacked, and here’s just a few vulnerabilities from this week:
- Global phone hacks expose darker side of Israel’s startup nation image
- How Taiwan is trying to defend against a cyber World War III
- Kaseya receives
Optimize RTL and Software with Fast Power Verification Results for Billion-Gate Designs
In every chip, power is a progressive problem to be solved. Designers have long had to rely on a combination of experience and knowledge to tackle this dilemma, typically having to wait until after silicon availability to perform power analysis with realistic software workloads. However, this is too late in the game, as it becomes… Read More
Instrumenting Post-Silicon Validation. Innovation in Verification
Instrumenting post-silicon validation is not a new idea but here’s a twist. Using (pre-silicon) emulation to choose debug observation structures to instrument in-silicon. Paul Cunningham (GM, Verification at Cadence), Raúl Camposano (Silicon Catalyst, entrepreneur, former Synopsys CTO) and I continue our series on research… Read More
EDA in the Cloud – Now More Than Ever
A decade ago, many of us heard commentaries on how entrepreneurs were turned down by venture capitalists for not including a cloud strategy in their business plan, no matter what the core business was. Humorous punchlines such as, “It’s cloudy without any clouds” and “Add some cloud to your strategy and your future will be bright… Read More
Rapidus, IBM, and the Billion-Dollar Silicon Sovereignty Bet