Technology typically evolves in waves. Sometimes it’s referred to as a “revolution” or an “age”. The industrial revolution and the information age are examples. These kinds of categorizations help to clarify the impact of innovation in ways that are relevant to everyone – you can’t look away if the world is changing around you.… Read More





Embedded Systems Development Flow
Earlier this year. as part of my coverage of the virtual Design Automation Conference (DAC), I interviewed Agnisys CEO and founder Anupam Bakshi. He talked about the new products they introduced at the show and filled me in on the history of the company and his own background. Recently, Anupam presented the webinar “System Development… Read More
The Future of FPGAs
On June 1, 2015 Intel and Altera announced , that they had entered into a definitive agreement under which Intel would acquire Altera for $16.7 billions. That was a major milestone for the FPGA community as Xilinx and Altera were the main FPGA vendors.
After the official announcement of AMD to acquire Xilinx, there is a huge… Read More
Intel’s Secret Key to Decrypt Microcode Patches is Exposed
A group of security vulnerability researchers, after many months of work, were able to figure out the update process and secret key used to decrypt Intel microcode updates for the Goldmont architecture product lines.
This is an important finding as it peels back yet another layer of the onion that protects the core CPU from malicious
What the Hell is C-V2X and Should I Care?
Automotive innovations have the greatest impact when they create what can only be described as magical experiences. The most magical experience of all is the car that avoids hitting things, or the car that parks itself.
I feel pretty strongly that cars should not hit things – that this is a product defect. The introduction… Read More
AMD and Intel Update with Xilinx
The AMD acquisition of Xilinx is certainly big news but as an insider looking at the media coverage I think there are a few more points to consider. While most of the coverage has been positive there will always be negatives and we can look at that as well.
Intel acquired Altera in 2015 for $16.7B at a 50% premium which was a major disruption… Read More
Leading Edge Foundry Wafer Prices
I have seen several articles recently discussing foundry wafer selling prices for leading edge wafers, these articles all quote estimates from a paper by the Center for Security and Emerging Technology (CSET). The paper is available here.
My company IC Knowledge LLC is the world leader in cost and price modeling of semiconductors… Read More
Creating Workflows for HCL Compass Just Got Easier
Workflows allow the world to function. The orderly process of sequencing tasks and automating handoffs creates tremendous potential for efficiency and error avoidance. As they say, time is money and workflows can save a lot of time. The principle applies in all kinds of industries. If you design chips for a living, you’re very … Read More
Verification IP for Systems? It’s Not What You Think.
When I think of verification IP (VIP), I think of something closely tied to a protocol standard – AMBA, MIPI or DDR for example. Something that will generate traffic and run protocol compliance checks, to verify correct operation of an IP or as a model to use in SoC verification. What would a VIP for systems be? Systems support multiple… Read More
What’s Driving This New Wave of Semiconductor Merger Mania?
Nvidia/ARM $40B. AMD/Xilinx $35B. Marvell/Inphi $10B. Despite the disruption of COVID, a wave of high value semiconductor acquisitions is sweeping the industry. Why? Did something happen that stimulated this consolidation? Until 2015, the industry was experiencing continuous “de-consolidation” that started in 1965. … Read More
Rapidus, IBM, and the Billion-Dollar Silicon Sovereignty Bet