It seems every day we see a new article (or ten) on autonomous driving. It is an especially hot topic, and it will happen someday. For now, we can dream about it, and many people are working on it. But for the present, the technology in a car that commands my attention is audio. I’ve been a musician since 4th grade. I still perform occasionally… Read More




Chapter 6 – Specialization in the Semiconductor Industry
Recently, the combined market share of the top ten and top twenty semiconductor companies has been increasing, contrary to the trend of the last fifty years. Given the acceleration in mergers and acquisitions that began in 2015, one might assume that, as the semiconductor industry approaches maturity, companies are consolidating… Read More
Can a hierarchical Test flow be used on a flat design?
It is pretty common for physical layout to work from a flattened hierarchy for blocks or even full chips, even though the front-end design starts with a hierarchical representation. This was not always the case. Way back when, the physical layout matched the logical hierarchy during the design process. Of course, this led to all… Read More
Is Hong Kong a preview of Taiwan? Will HK embolden China to take Taiwan faster?
On our recent Asian tour, Hong Kong was our last leg, arriving this past Friday and departing Monday, the day the airport stood still. We were on a 2:20PM flight out of Hong Kong back to the states which was one of the last flights to leave before the airport was shut down. Much like the China trade issue, the Hong Kong problem looks to be… Read More
US-China decoupling and the semiconductor industry – who gets hurt?
On November 7 last year, Henry M. Paulson, Jr., Chairman of the Paulson Institute and former Secretary of the US Treasury gave a speech in Singapore about the growing tension between the United States and China and warned that “an economic iron curtain” is a very real possibility as a result of a decoupling between … Read More
Mentor-Tanner Illuminate MEMS Sensing, Fusion
I enjoy learning and writing about new technologies closely connected to our personal and working lives (the kind you could explain to your Mom or a neighbor). So naturally I’m interested in AI, communication and security as applied to the home automation, transportation, virtual, augmented and mixed reality, industry and so… Read More
eSilicon Brings a New Software Interface to its 7nm neuASIC Machine Learning Platform at Hot Chips
In early May of this year, eSilicon announced the tape-out of a test chip which included the latest additions to its neuASIC™ IP platform. At the upcoming Hot Chips Symposium to be held at Stanford on August 19 and 20, 2019, eSilicon will be demonstrating the software component of this AI-enabling IP platform. At the event, eSilicon… Read More
Accelerate Your Early Design Recon
A product launch nowadays demands shorter runway. SoC designers challenges are not so much in facing the unavailability of proven design capture methodologies or IP’s that could satisfy their product requirements, but more so in orchestrating the integration of all those components to deliver the targeted functionalities… Read More
Webinar: Designing Complex SoCs and Dealing with Multiple File Formats
In SoC design it’s all about managing complexity through modeling, and the models that make up IC designs come in a wide range of file formats like:
- Transistor-level , SPICE
- Interconnect parasitics, SPEF
- Gate and RTL, Verilog, VHDL
Even with standard file formats, designers still have to traverse the hierarchy to find out… Read More
Steve Jobs, NeXT Computer, and Apple
From time to time I give presentations to various audiences: Silicon Valley the Way I Saw It. I always enjoy doing that. One particular section always makes me stop and think. “Who was this guy? How did he do what he did? Why didn’t I do that? “What made him so special?” It’s the Steve Jobs section. I met twice with Steve Jobs when … Read More
Intel Foundry is a Low Risk Aternative to TSMC