On November 10th I watched the presentation by L.C. Lu, TSMC Fellow & VP, as he talked about enabling system innovation with dozens of slides in just 26 minutes. TSMC is the number one semiconductor foundry in the world, and their Open Innovation Platform (OIP) events are popular and well attended as the process technology and… Read More
Agentic AI Can Reach GDS. What Must It Prove Before Engineers Trust It for Tapeout?Agentic AI is beginning to move semiconductor engineering…Read More
TSMC OIP Ecosystem Forum 2026: Opening RemarksThe 2026 TSMC Open Innovation Platform (OIP) Ecosystem…Read More
LLM-assisted schematic test-report analysis and root-cause investigationBy Piyush Bag Intro: In this AI era,…Read More
From Frontend to the Frontiers of Silicon with Moores Lab AIAlex Navarro is a Principal Software Engineer at…Read More
Synopsys Announces AgentEngineer Solutions and Autopilot Platform for Autonomous EngineeringSynopsys today announced its AgentEngineerTM solutions portfolio and…Read MoreMobility is Dead; Long Live Mobility
What the hell is going on in the automotive industry. Every automotive executive is talking mobility, mobility, mobility while simultaneously divesting every mobility asset that has been amassed over the past 10 years of surging mobility mania.
The latest spinoff of a mobility asset was Volkswagen’s sale of its WeShare car … Read More
AMAT and Semitool Deja Vu all over again
-Lam/Semisysco is a repeat of AMAT/Semitool
-Adds wet processing that larger companies lack
-Semisysco tools amazingly similar to those made by Semitool
-Lightning strikes twice for Ray Thompson
Deja Vu all over again
In a clear example of history repeating itself, Lam Research bought Semisysco, a company founded by Ray Thompson,… Read More
Podcast EP125: How NXP is Helping to Build Software-Defined Vehicles
Dan is joined by Brian Carlson, Brian is responsible for global marketing of automotive processors and solutions at NXP Semiconductors. He focuses on enabling new innovations that can create new automotive industry business opportunities. He has over 30 years’ experience driving leading-edge, computing and communications… Read More
Micron- “The first cut isn’t the deepest”- Chops production & forecast further
-Micron announces more production cuts & lower forecast
-DRAM will be negative- NAND sounds barely flat (for now)
-Capital spending to be cut to near zero- essential only
-Will the rest of the industry follow suit?
“The first cut isn’t the deepest”
(Apologies to Rod Stewart)
When Micron first announced… Read More
A Hardware IDE for VS Code Fans
A few times a year, I check in with AMIQ EDA co-founder Cristian Amitroaie to see what’s new with their company and the integrated development environment (IDE) market for hardware design and verification. Usually he suggests a topic for us to discuss, but this time I specifically wanted to learn more about the version of their Design… Read More
Calibre: Early Design LVS and ERC Checking gets Interesting
The last thing you want when taping out a design is to hit large numbers of violations in signoff checks that could have been flushed out and resolved in earlier flow iterations. For implementation flows (floorplanning, synthesis, place and route), it’s usual to do a lot of flow flushing work early in the design cycle and iteratively… Read More
Podcast EP124: A Look at the Design and Simulation Side of Keysight with Niels Faché
Dan is joined by Niels Faché, vice president and general manager, Design and Simulation at Keysight Technologies. Niels is responsible for Keysight’s design and simulation portfolio.
Dan explores the high-speed, high-frequency design and simulation capabilities of Keysight Technologies with Niels. A history of the products,… Read More
AMAT – Backlog buffers downcycle- still fighting shortages – WFE down in 2023
-AMAT put up good numbers despite slowing cycle
-Growing backlog will help them manage declining orders
-Parts shortages still haunt but improving for 2-4 more quarters
-2023 will be down- too early to tell how much- 2024 who knows
Good numbers but already adjusted for China
Applied put up revenue of $6.7B and EPS of $2.03 versus … Read More
Semiconductors Down in 2nd Half 2022
The semiconductor market declined 6.3% in 3Q 2022 from 2Q 2022, according to WSTS. Based on the outlook for 4Q 2022, the second half of 2022 will be down over 10% from the first half of 2022. The 2H 2022 decline will be the largest half-year decline since a 21% drop in the first half of 2009 versus the second half of 2008 during the great … Read More


The Invisible Bottleneck Is Costing You Time You Can’t Get Back