Silicon on insulator (SOI) technology has been around a very long time. I recall five-inch wafers full of SoS (silicon on sapphire) devices while working at the RCA Solid State Technology Center back in the dawn of time. Today, the concept of silicon on insulator is alive and well. Companies like GLOBALFOUNDRIES offer a special … Read More





The Car Data Monetization Muddle
Four years ago, this month, McKinsey published a report – “Monetizing Car Data” – which continues to simultaneously haunt and mock the automotive industry. The report claimed that by 2030 the so-called “car data market” would be worth as much as $750B.
SOURCE: McKinsey
This report spawned… Read More
SkillCAD Layout Automation Suite has Over 120 Commands Backed by 60 Customers
Cadence Virtuoso is by far the most popular layout tool for IC design. This is especially true at advanced process nodes. In my opinion one of the key reasons for this is its built-in extension language, SKILL. SKILL is a powerful tool to add time saving and customized functionality to the Virtuoso layout editor. For analog and custom… Read More
Siemens PAVE360 Stepping Up to Digital Twins
The idea of a digital twin is simple enough. You use a digital model of a car, aircraft, whatever to test design ideas and prove your design will be robust across a wide range of scenarios before you commit millions of dollars and lives to proving out the real thing. As Siemens have accomplished in their PAVE360 platform. There are a … Read More
Altair HPC Virtual Summit 2020 – The Latest in Enterprise Computing
On September 9 and 10 Altair held their high-performance computing virtual summit. Altair is a company with a large footprint. In their own words, “Altair is a global technology company that provides software and cloud solutions in the areas of data analytics, product development, and high-performance computing (HPC).” Their… Read More
Webinar: Static Verification for RISC-V Cores and SoCs
RISC-V has been trending ever since it landed on SemiWiki in 2016. Even more so now that Arm is in flux with the Nvidia acquisition. Verification is a fast growing EDA challenge with the number of verification engineers steadily outpacing design, so this webinar is a best case scenario for SemiWiki traffic, absolutely.
Two things… Read More
SMIC Cut off by US Government is Doomsday Scenario for US Chip Equipment Companies
SMIC Cut Off = Worst case scenario
SMIC is on US gov “no fly” list for US Equipment Companies
Will likely lead to loss of all of China- 25% to 50% of revenues
Retaliation by China will worsen situation
SMIC cut off from US technology (Chip Equip)
It has been reported in the Wall St Journal and many news outlets that the US government… Read More
How to multiply currents: Inside a Counterfeit Analog Multiplier
A recent Twitter thread about a counterfeit analog multiplier chip attracted my attention since I’m interested in both counterfeit integrated circuits and how analog computers multiply. In the thread, John McMaster decapped a suspicious AD633 analog multiplier chip and found an entirely different Rockwell RC4200… Read More
Innovating to Survive
The global COVID-19 pandemic has almost shut down entire industries, forcing companies of all sizes to adapt and evolve. It has also done incredible things for a pivot to innovation.
Safety has had to come first. And for many, that meant changing how they worked, using technology to power a shift to remote work and servicing of customers.… Read More
Autonomous Vehicles: Avoiding Obstacles and Responsibility
The headline screams off of the page and challenges all that we know about the fatal crash in Tempe, Ariz., that took the life of Elaine Herzberg two and a half years ago. “Backup Driver of Autonomous Uber SUV Charged with Negligent Homicide in Arizona.”
How could the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) associate itself… Read More
Rapidus, IBM, and the Billion-Dollar Silicon Sovereignty Bet