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Free Webinar on Verifying On-Chip ESD Protection

Free Webinar on Verifying On-Chip ESD Protection
by Tom Simon on 06-03-2020 at 6:00 am

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Walking across a carpet can generate up to 35,000 volts of static charge, which is tens of thousands of times higher than the operating voltages of most integrated circuits. When charge build up from static electricity is exposed to the pins of an IC, the electrostatic discharge (ESD) protection network on the chip is intended to… Read More


Feature-Selective Etching in SAQP for Sub-20 nm Patterning

Feature-Selective Etching in SAQP for Sub-20 nm Patterning
by Fred Chen on 06-02-2020 at 10:00 am

Feature Selective Etching in SAQP for Sub 20 nm Patterning

Self-aligned quadruple patterning (SAQP) is the most widely available technology used for patterning feature pitches less than 38 nm, with a projected capability to reach 19 nm pitch. It is actually an integration of multiple process steps, already being used to pattern the fins of FinFETs [1] and 1X DRAM [2]. These steps, shown… Read More


Arm Reinforces the Mobile Fortress

Arm Reinforces the Mobile Fortress
by Bernard Murphy on 06-02-2020 at 6:00 am

Arm Mobile 2020 Announcement

Arm did it again. They continue to press their advantage, most recently with an announcement on their 2020 release of cores for mobile applications, in Cortex-A, in what they now call Cortex-X custom cores, in Mali GPUs and in the next generation of their Ethos neural net core.

Paul Williamson, VP GM of the client line of business,… Read More


TSMC Pushes out Equip Purchases – SIA and SEMI ask for Government Help

TSMC Pushes out Equip Purchases – SIA and SEMI ask for Government Help
by Robert Maire on 06-01-2020 at 9:00 am

TSMC China

TSMC pushing out equipment purchases
Covid/China trickles down to chip industry
SIA and SEMI ask for financial/govt help to keep up
The beginning of another down cycle?

We have heard from a number of sources that TSMC has started to push out equipment orders as concerns grow about the second half of the year.

Right now is the most logical… Read More


Tortuga Logic CEO Update 2020

Tortuga Logic CEO Update 2020
by Daniel Nenni on 06-01-2020 at 6:00 am

Jason Oberg

We started working with Tortuga Logic two years ago beginning with a CEO interview so it is time to do an update. The venerable Dr. Bernard Murphy did the first interview with Jason which is worth reading again, absolutely.

Security is also one of the vertical markets we track which has been trending up for the last two years. In looking

Read More

Misunderstanding the Economic Factors of Cybercrime

Misunderstanding the Economic Factors of Cybercrime
by Matthew Rosenquist on 05-31-2020 at 6:00 am

Misunderstanding the Economic Factors of Cybercrime

A new study by Cambridge Cybercrime Centre titled Cybercrime is (often) boring: maintaining the infrastructure of cybercrime economies concludes that cybercrime is boring and recommends authorities change their strategy to highlight the tedium in order to dissuade the growth of cybercrime.

Warning: Full-blown rant ahead,Read More


Time for Chip Diplomacy

Time for Chip Diplomacy
by Terry Daly on 05-29-2020 at 10:00 am

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An industry caught in the crosshairs of geopolitics needs global emeritus leadership

The semiconductor industry is at the epicenter of great power politics. An ascendant China is on a quest for a unified global system with China as the leading power. The United States seeks to maintain its position as leader of the liberal democratic… Read More


Minimizing Power Consumption in Ultra Low Power MCU Based SoCs

Minimizing Power Consumption in Ultra Low Power MCU Based SoCs
by Tom Simon on 05-29-2020 at 6:00 am

ULP SoC Demand

When it comes to extremely power sensitive applications such as IoT and edge devices, there is literally an arsenal of power saving techniques that could be used. The tricky part is figuring out which ones to use and how to use them for maximum benefit. This is coupled with the need to not hamper device performance or functionality.… Read More


PLDA Expands Data Interconnect IP Solutions with CXL and Gen-Z Protocol Support

PLDA Expands Data Interconnect IP Solutions with CXL and Gen-Z Protocol Support
by Mike Gianfagna on 05-28-2020 at 10:00 am

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A couple of months ago I introduced PLDA, a new member of the SemiWiki community, with a post about PLDA’s switch IP and its support for PCIe and NVMe solid state disks. Working in the area of high-performance data interconnects requires support for a growing list of standards, standards that continually evolve. The trick is to stay… Read More


What a Difference an Architecture Makes: Optimizing AI for IoT

What a Difference an Architecture Makes: Optimizing AI for IoT
by Bernard Murphy on 05-28-2020 at 6:00 am

HLS PPA results

Last week Mentor hosted a virtual event on designing an AI accelerator with HLS, integrating it together with an Arm Corstone SSE-200 platform and characterizing/optimizing for performance and power. Though in some ways a recap of earlier presentations, there were some added insights in this session, particularly in characterizing… Read More