ads mdx semiwiki building trust gen 800x100ai

Is EDA Growth Unstoppable?

Is EDA Growth Unstoppable?
by Mike Gianfagna on 07-15-2021 at 6:00 am

Is EDA Growth Unstoppable

SemiWiki has covered the Q2, Q3 and Q4 ESD Alliance quarterly revenue reports previously. The Q2 2020 report suggested that EDA had COVID immunity. The Q3 2020 report inspired an Up and to the Right comment. The Q4 2020 report  demanded a Juggernaut label.  And now the Q1 2021 report posts yet more record-breaking growth. This is … Read More


Fully Modeling the Semiconductor Manufacturing Process

Fully Modeling the Semiconductor Manufacturing Process
by Tom Simon on 07-14-2021 at 10:00 am

Modeling the Semiconductor Manufacturing Process

A lot of folks in the semiconductor business are familiar with Dassault Systèmes because of their product life cycle management (PLM) products for IC design. They are, of course well known in other industries as well for their 3D modeling and simulation software. Over the years they have added capabilities and intelligence to … Read More


Get a Jump-Start on Your Next IoT Design with Sondrel’s SFA 100

Get a Jump-Start on Your Next IoT Design with Sondrel’s SFA 100
by Mike Gianfagna on 07-14-2021 at 6:00 am

Get a Jump Start on Your Next IoT Design with Sondrels SFA 100

The concept of platform-based design has been around a long time. I can recall Nokia’s early cell phone products used the strategy very effectively. They were able to turn out new phones quickly by leveraging their existing chip design as a baseline on which to add features. This is commonplace today but was innovative at that time.… Read More


StarFive Surpasses Development Goal with the Prodigy Rapid Prototyping System from S2C

StarFive Surpasses Development Goal with the Prodigy Rapid Prototyping System from S2C
by rdgreen on 07-13-2021 at 10:00 am

SartFive

Faced with the challenge of developing a high-performance hardware platform with critical software components, what choices do companies have in rapidly moving their development forward with modest budgets and resources?

That was the challenge faced by StarFive Technology, a leading IP and semiconductor SoC platform solution… Read More


Obtaining Early Analog Block Area Estimates

Obtaining Early Analog Block Area Estimates
by Tom Simon on 07-13-2021 at 6:00 am

Animate Preview Area Estimation

I’ve written before about Pulsic’s Animate Preview software, which is extremely helpful in completing placement in analog blocks so that they are ready for routing. Analog design automation has always been a tough proposition, but Animate Preview looks like a promising tool, with practical benefits. Obtaining DRC clean placement… Read More


Automotive Safety Island: Test, Safety, Security, ISO 26262

Automotive Safety Island: Test, Safety, Security, ISO 26262
by Daniel Payne on 07-12-2021 at 10:00 am

functional safety

I first fell in love with electric vehicles back in 1978 as an Electrical Engineering student, studying at the University of Minnesota. What caught my fancy was a small advertisement listed in the back of Popular Mechanics magazine to build your own electric vehicle by replacing the gas engine of a Honda with an electric motor, so… Read More


TSMC Design Considerations for Gate-All-Around (GAA) Technology

TSMC Design Considerations for Gate-All-Around (GAA) Technology
by Tom Dillinger on 07-12-2021 at 6:00 am

mobility differences 3

The annual VLSI Symposium provides unique insights into R&D innovations in both circuits and technology.  Indeed, the papers presented are divided into two main tracks – Circuits and Technology.  In addition, the symposium offers workshops, forums, and short courses, providing a breadth of additional information.

At… Read More


Stochastic Origins of EUV Feature Edge Roughness

Stochastic Origins of EUV Feature Edge Roughness
by Fred Chen on 07-11-2021 at 10:00 am

Stochastic Origins of EUV Feature Edge Roughness

Due to the higher energy of EUV (13.3-13.7 nm wavelength) compared to ArF (193 nm wavelength) light, images produced by EUV are more susceptible to photon shot noise.

Figure 1. (Left) 40 nm dense (half-pitch) line image projected onto wafer at 35 mJ/cm2; (Right) 20 nm dense (half-pitch) line image projected onto wafer at 70 mJ/cm2.Read More


Apple’s Orphan Silicon

Apple’s Orphan Silicon
by Paul Boldt on 07-11-2021 at 6:00 am

T2 die anno lr

Apple’s recent Spring Loaded Event brought us M1-based iMacs.  After the MacBook Air and 13” MacBook Pro in the fall, iMacs are the third Mac to jettison Intel processors.  With this transition Apple’s T2 chip enters End of Life status, so to speak.  The T2 is a bit of an enigma and now it does not have much time left.

We know it performs… Read More


Podcast EP28: Funding approaches for semiconductor startups

Podcast EP28: Funding approaches for semiconductor startups
by Daniel Nenni on 07-09-2021 at 10:00 am

Dan is joined by Wally Rhines to discuss funding approaches for semiconductor startups. Wally has led a fundraising effort for a fabless semiconductor startup for the last year.  His experience is useful for others who are trying to raise funding for promising semiconductor startups.

Wally Rhines is widely recognized as an expert

Read More