One meaning of the word “reckoning” says it is the action or process of calculating or estimating something. But dead reckoning? What does that mean? Believe it or not, we have all deployed dead reckoning to varying degrees of success on different occasions. As an example, when driving on a multi-lane winding highway and direct … Read More





Why Near-Threshold Voltage is an Excellent Choice for Hearables
In the previous blogs on this topic, we’ve seen that utilizing near-threshold voltage (NTV) saves incredible amounts of energy, theoretically up to 10x and in practice from 2x to 4x. But there is a price which makes some applications more suited for NTV than others. This is due to the inevitable performance (speed) loss of NTV as … Read More
Transistor-Level Static Checking for Better Performance and Reliability
My first transistor-level IC design job was with Intel, doing DRAM designs by shrinking the layout to a smaller process node, and it also required running lots of SPICE runs with manually extracted parasitics to verify that everything was operating OK, meeting the access time specifications and power requirements across PVT … Read More
Achronix Next-Gen FPGAs Now Shipping
Earlier in April, Achronix made a product announcement with the headline “Achronix Now Shipping Industry’s Highest Performance Speedster7t FPGA Devices.” The press release drew attention to the fact that the 7nm Speedster®7t AC7t1500 FPGAs have started shipping to customers ahead of schedule. In the complex product world… Read More
You know you have a problem when 60 Minutes covers it!
-Chip shortage on 60 Minutes- Average Joe now aware of chip issue
-Intel sprinkling fairy dust (money) on New Mexico & Israel
-Give up on buy backs and dividends
-Could Uncle Sam give a handout to Intel?
You normally don’t want to answer the door if 60 Minutes TV crew is outside as it likely doesn’t mean good things.… Read More
Synopsys Debuts Major New Analog Simulation Capabilities
Just prior to this year’s Synopsys User Group (SNUG) meeting, I had a call with Hany Elhak, Group Director of Product Management and Marketing at Synopsys, to talk about their latest announcements for analog simulation. Synopsys usually has big things to talk about each year around this time – this year is no exception. Hany… Read More
Intel’s EMIB Packaging Technology – A Deep Dive
The evolution of low-cost heterogeneous multi-chip packaging (MCP) has led to significant system-level product innovations. Three classes of MCP offerings have emerged:
- wafer-level fan-out redistribution, using reconstituted wafer substrates of molding compound as the surface for interconnections between die (2D)
KLAC- Great QTR & Guide- Foundry/logic focus driver- Confirms $75B capex in 2021
– KLA put up an excellent quarter and Guide
– Rising above the increasing tide of orders
– Confirms $75B capex in 2021 with upside
– Foundry & Logic continue to be the sweet spot for KLA
Business is very very good and getting better
-Revenues came in at $1.8B with EPS of $3.85, all above the range
-Guidance… Read More
Ireland – A Model for the US on Technology
After I published a recent article about Intel, I was contacted by the Irish Development Agency (IDA) where Intel has a large fab presence and asked if I would like to interview them about the Intel site. The interview with Turlough McCormack of the IDA, started with Intel’s presence in Ireland but then went on to paint an interesting… Read More
Podcast EP18: The Story Behind Combining Methodics and Perforce
Dan and Mike are joined by Simon Butler, founder of Methodics and Brad Hart, CTO of Perforce. We explore the acquisition of Methodics by Perforce, including motivation, strategy and a look to the future. We also discuss some of the history of Methodics and how they became successful.
MediaTek Develops Chip Utilizing TSMC’s 2nm Process, Achieving Milestones in Performance and Power Efficiency