The old adage that “Time is Money” certainly rings true in the semiconductor world where IC designers are being challenged with getting their new designs to market quickly, and correctly in the first spin of silicon. Circuit designers work at the transistor-level, and circuit simulation is one of the most time-consuming… Read More




Webinar: Using Embedded FPGA to Improve Machine Learning SOCs
By its very definition, machine learning (ML) hardware requires flexibility. In turn, each ML application has its own fine grain requirements. Specific hardware implementations that include specialized processing elements are often desirable for machine learning chips. At the top of the priority list is parallel processing.… Read More
Low Power Design – Art vs. Science
I have heard many times before that low power and mixed-signal design is more Art than Science. I believe this is a misconception. Science is a field that builds upon previous experiences and discoveries. Art primarily seeks out creative differences, things we have not seen before that evoke emotion. The most successful designers… Read More
Semicon West 2019 – Day 4 – Soitec
Last year at Semicon I sat down with Soitec and got an update on the company. You can read my write up from last year here. A key point last year was Soitec was continuing to be profitable and grow after several years of financial struggles.
On Thursday, July 11th I got to sit down with Soitec’s CEO, Paul Boudre and get an update on… Read More
Making pre-Silicon Verification Plausible for Autonomous Vehicles
I love reading about the amazing progress of autonomous vehicles, like when Audi and their A8 model sedan was the first to reach Level 3 autonomy, closely followed by Tesla at Level 2, although Tesla gets way more media attention here in the US. A friend of mine bought his wife a car that offers adaptive cruise control with auto-braking,… Read More
Xilinx on ANSYS Elastic Compute for Timing and EM/IR
I’m a fan of getting customer reality checks on advanced design technologies. This is not so much because vendors put the best possible spin on their product capabilities; of course they do (within reason), as does every other company aiming to stay in business. But application by customers on real designs often shows lower performance,… Read More
Digging Deeper in Hardware/Software Security
When it comes to security we’re all outraged at the manifest incompetence of whoever was most recently hacked, leaking personal account details for tens of millions of clients and everyone firmly believes that “they” ought to do better. Yet as a society there’s little evidence beyond our clickbait Pavlovian responses that we’re… Read More
More Steve Jobs, Apple, and NeXT Computer
My first meeting with Steve Jobs was in early 1987 when he was running NeXT Computer. I was a VP at AMD and was hunting for potential customers. I visited him in the NeXT Palo Alto facility with the objective of selling him some existing AMD products. He had a different objective: to get me to produce a new product that we had no plans… Read More
Designing Connected Car Cockpits
Creating engaging, though not distracting, in-vehicle experiences that enhance driving and maximize safety represents an intimidating and inspiring opportunity for automotive designers – who have already made great strides. The widespread adoption of connectivity means that artificial intelligence in the form… Read More
Hopes of a 2020 recovery but nothing solid yet
An in line quarter
Applied reported a quarter just above the mid point of guidance and analyst numbers (which mimic guidance) with revenues of $3.56B and EPS of $0.74 with guidance of $3.685B+-$150M and EPS o $0.72 to $0.80, also in line with current expectations. All in all a fairly boring quarter with business bouncing along a soft… Read More
Intel Foundry is a Low Risk Aternative to TSMC