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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


Do You Care About What You’re Measuring? Part 3: Industrial Condition Monitoring

Do You Care About What You’re Measuring? Part 3: Industrial Condition Monitoring
by Steve Logan on 02-10-2021 at 10:00 am

Industrial Condition Monitoring

Mountains over 10,000 feet capped with snow in the winter. Some of the deepest, clearest blue sky you’ll find in the United States. Farmlands of green in the spring. That was the view looking out the second story window from the most awesome conference room I’ve ever taken a customer meeting. Even if I didn’t immediately understand… Read More


A New ML Application, in Formal Regressions

A New ML Application, in Formal Regressions
by Bernard Murphy on 02-10-2021 at 6:00 am

A New ML Application

Machine learning (ML) is a once-in-a-generation innovation that seems like it should be applicable almost everywhere. It’s certainly revolutionized automotive safety, radiology and many other domains. In our neck of the woods, SoC implementation is advancing through learning to reduce total negative slacks and better optimize… Read More


Trust, but verify. How to catch peanut butter engineering before it spreads into your system — Part 2: Verification.

Trust, but verify. How to catch peanut butter engineering before it spreads into your system — Part 2: Verification.
by Raul Perez on 02-09-2021 at 10:00 am

iStock 1176843522

This article about verification is part 2 of a two article series. Please see part 1 on validation HERE.

Verification is a field that has emerged as its own discipline. It’s no longer being relegated to an activity led by the design team to which time is allocated as long as it doesn’t get in the way of designing. Chip companiesRead More