Agile methods in hardware design are becoming topical again. What does this mean for verification? Paul Cunningham (GM, Verification at Cadence) and I continue our series on research ideas. We’re also honored this month to welcome Raúl Camposano to our blog as a very distinguished replacement for Jim Hogan. As always, feedback… Read More





Small EDA Company with Something New: SoC Compiler
I read the semiconductor press, LinkedIn and social media (Twitter, Facebook) every morning along with an RSS feed that I setup, staying current on everything related to using EDA tools to make the task of SoC design a bit easier for design teams. A recent press release announced a tool called SoC Compiler, so my curiosity was piqued… Read More
PCIe 6.0 Doubles Speed with New Modulation Technique
PCI-SIG has held to doubling PCIe’s data rate with each revision of the specification. The consortium of 800 companies, with its board consisting of Agilent, AMD, Dell, HP, Intel, Synopsys, NVIDIA, and Qualcomm, is continuing this trend with the PCIe 6.0 specification which calls for a transfer rate of 64 GT/s. PCI-SIG released… Read More
It’s not a Semiconductor Shortage It’s Demand Delirium & Poor Planning
-The semiconductor industry is not to blame its the customers
-How do you fix something that’s not really broken?
-Long taken for granted, semi’s are sexy again
-Pawns in a Political Power Play?
Its not the chip makers that screwed up. It’s the customers that stressed the system beyond breaking
The semiconductor… Read More
Why Tech Tales are Wafer Thin in Hollywood
Mad scientists have been a staple of Hollywood science fiction since Dr Victor Frankenstein created his eponymous monster in 1931. Pre-pandemic, the Marvel Cinematic Universe was the main source of on-screen geeks-turned-superheroes, from Iron Man’s Tony Stark to Ant Man’s Hank Pym.
When it comes to real-life scientists on… Read More
How to Spend $100 Billion Dollars in Three Years
TSMC recently announced plans to spend $100 billion dollars over three years on capital. For 2021 they announced $30B in total capital with 80% on advanced nodes (7nm and smaller), 10% on packaging and masks and 10% on “specialty”.
If we take a guess at the capital for each year, we can project something like $30B for 2021 (announced),… Read More
Podcast EP17: EDA, Semiconductors and the Future
Dan and Mike are joined by semiconductor and EDA executive Jack Harding. Jack has a diverse career as a technology executive beginning at IBM with notable stops along the way, including taking Cooper and Chyan Technology public, taking the helm from Joe Costello as CEO of Cadence and most recently as the founding CEO of eSilicon,… Read More
Automakers to Blame for Semiconductor Shortage
Automakers worldwide have scaled back production due to a shortage of semiconductors. Companies which have announced temporary halts on production include Volkswagen, Toyota, General Motors, Ford, Nissan, Honda, Suzuki, Mitsubishi, Daimler (Mercedes) and Stellantis (merger of Fiat-Chrysler and Peugot).
IHS Markit estimates… Read More
CEO Interview: Dr. Rick Shen of eMemory
Dr. Shen has been President of eMemory Technology since 2009, succeeding Dr. Charles Hsu. Prior to the appointment, Dr. Shen held various management positions within the company, overseeing Technology Development, founding the Customer Service team, supervising Technology & IP services, and the company’s technology… Read More
Using eFPGA to Dynamically Adapt to Changing Workloads
In early April, Gabriele Saucier kicked off Design & Reuse’s IPSoC Silicon Valley 2021 Conference. IPSoC conference as the name suggests is dedicated to semiconductor intellectual property (IP) and IP-based electronic systems. There were a number of excellent presentations at the conference. The presentations had been… Read More
Rapidus, IBM, and the Billion-Dollar Silicon Sovereignty Bet