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WEBINAR: Transitioning from Live to Virtual Events

WEBINAR: Transitioning from Live to Virtual Events
by Daniel Nenni on 05-15-2020 at 6:00 am

SemiWiki Webinar Banner

The foundation of SemiWiki.com has always been to transition live semiconductor related events to an easy to digest digital format via a worldwide online semiconductor community. SemiWiki is staffed by working semiconductor professionals that transform live events, press releases, whitepapers, webinars and other collateral… Read More


High Speed SerDes Design and Simulation Webinar Replay from Mentor

High Speed SerDes Design and Simulation Webinar Replay from Mentor
by Tom Simon on 05-14-2020 at 10:00 am

Mentor SerDes Simulation

Over the years SerDes (serializer/deserializer) based connections have proliferated into just about every connection within and among computing systems. Years ago, parallel interfaces were the most common method of moving data, but issues of signal integrity, synchronization and power simply became too much for the required… Read More


The Problem with Reset Domain Crossings

The Problem with Reset Domain Crossings
by Bernard Murphy on 05-14-2020 at 6:00 am

Reset button

Design complexities in reset, like everything else in big SoC designs, has become incredibly complex, for all sorts of reasons. Long, long ago reset was something you just did once, when you turned the power on. Turn on, then hold reset for some amount of time until everything is in a known starting state, and off you go. Nice and simple.… Read More


The Uncertain Phase Shifts of EUV Masks

The Uncertain Phase Shifts of EUV Masks
by Fred Chen on 05-13-2020 at 10:00 am

The Uncertain Phase Shifts of EUV Masks

EUV (Extreme UltraViolet) lithography has received attention within the semiconductor industry since its development inception in 1997 with the formation of the EUV LLC [1], and more recently, since the 7nm node began, with limited use by Samsung and TSMC being touted as key advantages [2, 3]. As with any key critical technology,

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SEMI Takes the Jim Hogan and Simon Butler Conversation Virtual

SEMI Takes the Jim Hogan and Simon Butler Conversation Virtual
by Mike Gianfagna on 05-13-2020 at 10:00 am

Jim Simon

As I originally reported a few weeks ago, the Jim Hogan fireside chat with Methodic’s CEO and founder Simon Butler was moved to a virtual event on May 1. The event was produced by the Electronic System Design (ESD) Alliance, a SEMI Strategic Technology Community. Bob Smith, executive director of ESDA, moderated the event. I am happy… Read More


Cadence – Redefining EDA Through Computational Software

Cadence – Redefining EDA Through Computational Software
by Mike Gianfagna on 05-12-2020 at 10:00 am

Screen Shot 2020 05 09 at 6.52.49 PM

Based on what I’m seeing, I believe Cadence is looking at the world a bit differently these days. I first reported about their approach to machine learning for EDA in March, and then there was their white paper about Intelligent System Design in April. It’s now May, and Cadence is shaking things up again with a new white paper entitled… Read More


3 Steps to a Security Plan

3 Steps to a Security Plan
by Bernard Murphy on 05-12-2020 at 12:00 am

cybersecurity

Assessing the security of a hardware design sometimes seems like a combination of the guy looking under a streetlight for his car keys, because that’s where the light is (We have this tool, let’s see what problems it can find) and a whack-a-mole response to the latest publicized vulnerabilities (Cache timing side channels? What… Read More


Our US chip foundry comments confirmed by WSJ

Our US chip foundry comments confirmed by WSJ
by Robert Maire on 05-11-2020 at 10:00 am

Trump Intel TSMC China TAiwan

-Could GloFo come back?
-TSMC or Intel or both or neither?
-Samsung would be a long shot?
-Perhaps Apple could convince TSMC?

The Wall Street Journal put out an article that detailed what we had indicated in our newsletter 10 days ago, that the US government is looking at getting a US based foundry to protect our interests given our … Read More


KLA – Keep Looking Ahead because we don’t know the future of China & Covid

KLA – Keep Looking Ahead because we don’t know the future of China & Covid
by Robert Maire on 05-11-2020 at 6:00 am

KLAC Covid SemiWiki

-Great quarter & execution with minimal Covid impact
-Wide guide is better than no guide as future is very fuzzy
-Feels like slightly down H2 W/ unknown embargo impact

KLA is virtually unscathed by Covid for now at least
KLA put up a very solid quarter with revenues of $1.424B and Non GAAP EPS of $2.47 versus street of $1.39B and … Read More


Autonomous Cars Reality is Stranger than Fiction

Autonomous Cars Reality is Stranger than Fiction
by Roger C. Lanctot on 05-10-2020 at 10:00 am

Autonomous Cars Reality is Stranger than Fiction

For tech-sensitive viewers of streaming content it is becoming increasingly difficult to avoid the appearance of autonomous vehicles in serialized television programs. Amazon’s “Upload” and HBO’s “Westworld” are two such examples.

Described as a comedy (with elements of a thriller) “Upload” makes gratuitous use of autonomous… Read More