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 Quantum Threat: Why Industrial Control Systems Must Be Ready and How PQShield Is Leading the DefenseIndustrial control systems (ICS) underpin the world’s most…Read More
Radio Frequency Integrated Circuits (RFICs) Generated by AI Based Design AutomationBy Jason Liu, RFIC-GPT Inc. Radio frequency integrated…Read More
Ceva-XC21 Crowned "Best IP/Processor of the Year"In a resounding affirmation of innovation in semiconductor…Read MoreThe 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,
SEMI Takes the Jim Hogan and Simon Butler Conversation Virtual
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
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
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
-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
-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
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
MOSFET Gate Length Scaling Limit at Reduced Threshold Voltages
As transistor dimensions shrink to follow Moore’s Law, the functionality of the gate used to switch on or off the current is actually being degraded by the short channel effect (SCE) [1-5]. Moreover, the simultaneous reduction of voltage aggravates the degradation, as will be discussed below.
A Practical Lower Limit of… Read More
Flex Logix CEO Update 2020
We started working with Felx Logix more than eight years ago and let me tell you it has been an interesting journey. Geoff Tate was our second CEO Interview so this is a follow up to that. The first one garnered more than 15,000 views and I expect more this time given the continued success of Flex Logix pioneering the eFPGA market, absolutely.… Read More




The Quantum Threat: Why Industrial Control Systems Must Be Ready and How PQShield Is Leading the Defense