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EDA Appears to Have COVID Immunity – ESD Alliance Reports Strong Q2 2020

EDA Appears to Have COVID Immunity – ESD Alliance Reports Strong Q2 2020
by Daniel Nenni on 10-05-2020 at 10:00 am

EDA Appears to Have COVID Immunity – ESD Alliance Reports Strong Q2 2020

The ESD Alliance tracks revenue growth for a large number of EDA companies. Their recent report paints a positive picture in a landscape dotted with challenges and not-so-good news. The report cites 12.6% overall revenue growth for Q2 2020 vs. Q2 2019. Furthermore, the overall most recent four quarter revenue average has increased… Read More


SMIC China Sanctions – Headwinds For Applied Materials And Lam Research

SMIC China Sanctions – Headwinds For Applied Materials And Lam Research
by Robert Castellano on 10-05-2020 at 6:00 am

Micron Technology and SMIC C1

On September 26 there were media reports that the U.S. Commerce Department has added China’s largest chipmaker, Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (SMIC) , to its entity list, after it determined there an “unacceptable risk” that equipment SMIC received could be used for military purposes

U.S. firms would… Read More


Will the U.S. and China go to War for TSMC?

Will the U.S. and China go to War for TSMC?
by Daniel Nenni on 10-05-2020 at 4:00 am

Will the U.S. and China go to War over TSMC

The semiconductor industry has never been more exciting than it is today and that is a mouthful given what we have accomplished over the last 50 years. From mainframe computers to a supercomputer in our pockets or on our wrists. Even if you don’t believe in miracles, semiconductor technology comes really close, absolutely.

U.S.Read More


Painful IoT Security Lessons Highlighted by a Digital Padlock

Painful IoT Security Lessons Highlighted by a Digital Padlock
by Matthew Rosenquist on 10-04-2020 at 10:00 am

Painful IoT Security Lessons Highlighted by a Digital Padlock

The first warning sign was “hackproof” in the 360Lock marketing materials. As it turns out, with no surprise to any security professional, the NFC and Bluetooth enabled padlock proved to be anything but secure.

Straightforward penetration testing revealed horrible logical and physical security for a padlock that promotes… Read More


5G, Hyperscaling and the Resurgence of Consumer Silicon

5G, Hyperscaling and the Resurgence of Consumer Silicon
by Ramsay Allen on 10-04-2020 at 6:00 am

TSMC 5G OIP 2020

At the recent TSMC OIP Ecosystem Forum and Technology virtual events, TSMC re-affirmed their previous prediction that 5G is going to be a multi-year silicon mega-trend with the biggest drivers being the ramp up of 5G handsets, supporting infrastructure and the continued growth of high performance computing (HPC).

We all want… Read More


CEO Interview: Dean Drako of IC Manage

CEO Interview: Dean Drako of IC Manage
by Daniel Nenni on 10-02-2020 at 6:00 am

Dean Drako CEO Interview SemiWiki 1

Dean founded IC Manage in 2003, a company that he has helped expand to become the IC/SoC design and IP management technology leader. Dean was also founder, President and CEO of Barracuda Networks from 2003 to 2012, where he built and expanded Barracuda from a spam and virus firewall provider to a broad line enterprise technology … Read More


Veriest Meetup Provides Insights on Safety, Deadlocks

Veriest Meetup Provides Insights on Safety, Deadlocks
by Bernard Murphy on 10-01-2020 at 6:00 am

Veriest Logo min

I wasn’t familiar with Veriest, I’m guessing you may not be either. They are a design and verification services company based in the Tel Aviv area (Israel). The CEO, Moshe Zalcberg, was earlier GM for Cadence in Israel. Echoes for me of the early days working with Ajoy Bose in Interra. Veriest have a big emphasis in verification, for… Read More


Achieve Superior Energy Efficiency – Body Bias for FDSOI

Achieve Superior Energy Efficiency – Body Bias for FDSOI
by Mike Gianfagna on 09-30-2020 at 10:00 am

Achieve Superior Energy Efficiency – Body Bias for FDSOI

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

The Car Data Monetization Muddle
by Roger C. Lanctot on 09-30-2020 at 6:00 am

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

SkillCAD Layout Automation Suite has Over 120 Commands Backed by 60 Customers
by Tom Simon on 09-29-2020 at 10:00 am

SkillCAD Layout Automation Suite

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