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Synopsys Delivers a Brief History of AI chips and Specialty AI IP

Synopsys Delivers a Brief History of AI chips and Specialty AI IP
by Mike Gianfagna on 02-16-2021 at 10:00 am

Cloud AI Accelerator SoC

Let’s face it, AI is everywhere. From the cloud to the edge to your pocket, there is more and more embedded intelligence fueling efficiency and features. It’s sometimes hard to discern where human interaction ends, and machine interaction begins. The technology that underlies all this is quite complex and daunting to understand.… Read More


Happy Birthday UVM! A Very Grown-Up 10-Year-Old

Happy Birthday UVM! A Very Grown-Up 10-Year-Old
by Bernard Murphy on 02-16-2021 at 6:00 am

UVM logo min

.The UVM standard was first released by Accellera 10 years ago this month and is now by far the leading methodology for functionally verifying logic designs, especially at the block level. As I write, DVCon fast approaches so I talked to Tom Fitzpatrick, Verification Technologist at Siemens EDA (Mentor Graphics) for a perspective.… Read More


Expert Advice for the New Intel CEO

Expert Advice for the New Intel CEO
by Daniel Nenni on 02-15-2021 at 10:00 am

Pat Gelsinger Intel CEO

Intel is a semiconductor legend. Founded on July 18, 1968, the name Intel is short for Integrated Electronics. After leading Silicon Valley, the United Sates, and the world into the era of semiconductors through technical excellence, Intel has hit some challenging times. There has been quite a bit of CEO drama that we will look … Read More


Intel Node Names

Intel Node Names
by Scotten Jones on 02-15-2021 at 6:00 am

Slide2

There is a lot of interest right now in how Intel compares to the leading foundries and what the future may hold.

Several years ago, I published several extremely popular articles converting processes from various companies to “Equivalent Nodes” (EN). Nodes were at one time based on actual physical features of processes but had… Read More


How SerDes Became Key IP for Semiconductor Systems

How SerDes Became Key IP for Semiconductor Systems
by Eric Esteve on 02-14-2021 at 10:00 am

Ethernet bandwidth

We have seen that the interface IP category is seeing incredibly high growth rate over the last two decades and we expect this category to generate an ongoing high source of IP revenues for at least another decade. But if we dig into the various successful protocols like PCI Express, Ethernet or USB, we can detect a common function … Read More


Semiconductors up 6.5% in 2020, >10% in 2021?

Semiconductors up 6.5% in 2020, >10% in 2021?
by Bill Jewell on 02-14-2021 at 6:00 am

Feb 2021 co revised 9

Semiconductor sales in 2020 were $439.0 billion, up 6.5% from $412.3 billion in 2019, according to World Semiconductor Trade Statistics (WSTS).

We at Semiconductor Intelligence have been tracking the accuracy of semiconductor market forecasts from various sources for several years. We look at publicly available projections… Read More


Podcast EP7: Signal Integrity and Killer Robots

Podcast EP7: Signal Integrity and Killer Robots
by Daniel Nenni on 02-12-2021 at 10:00 am

Dan and Mike are joined by Matt Burns, technical marketing manager at Samtec. Matt discusses the signal integrity challenges faced by system designers. The materials and protocols used for channels on a board, between boards on a rack and even between racks are discussed. Matt also touches on the work Samtec is doing with BattleBots.… Read More


CEO Interview: Sathyam Pattanam

CEO Interview: Sathyam Pattanam
by Daniel Nenni on 02-12-2021 at 6:00 am

Sathyam Pattanam

Sathyam has over 35 years of experience in company management, R&D management and software development in Electronic Design Automation (EDA) (mostly) and PCB Manufacturing. He has headed companies, global engineering and marketing organizations in Forture-500 and in startups companies to introduce innovative and … Read More


“For Want of a Chip, the Auto Industry was Lost”

“For Want of a Chip, the Auto Industry was Lost”
by Robert Maire on 02-11-2021 at 10:00 am

Auto Assembly Line

Semiconductor production can’t be turned on and off like a switch

Semiconductor fabs have to run 24/7 to make money. They have to be running full all the time to fully utilize the high running costs and in the case of new fabs, high capital costs.

Unlike a brake pad factory hat can hire and fire people at will and source readily … Read More


Need Electromagnetic Simulations for ICs?

Need Electromagnetic Simulations for ICs?
by Daniel Nenni on 02-11-2021 at 6:00 am

RaptorH in Virtuoso

Electromagnetic (EM) simulations have been performed on die metal structures since the 1990s. Originally, the analysis was restricted to a single device (e.g., a spiral inductor). The number of on-die devices simulated simultaneously grew with the increasing capabilities of the computers performing the computations. This… Read More