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Xilinx on ANSYS Elastic Compute for Timing and EM/IR

Xilinx on ANSYS Elastic Compute for Timing and EM/IR
by Bernard Murphy on 08-20-2019 at 5:00 am

RedHawk-SC

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

Digging Deeper in Hardware/Software Security
by Bernard Murphy on 08-19-2019 at 10:00 am

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

More Steve Jobs, Apple, and NeXT Computer
by John East on 08-19-2019 at 6:00 am

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

Designing Connected Car Cockpits
by Roger C. Lanctot on 08-18-2019 at 4:00 pm

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

Hopes of a 2020 recovery but nothing solid yet
by Robert Maire on 08-18-2019 at 6:00 am

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


Tensilica HiFi DSPs for What I Want to Hear, and What I Don’t Want to Hear

Tensilica HiFi DSPs for What I Want to Hear, and What I Don’t Want to Hear
by Randy Smith on 08-16-2019 at 10:00 am

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

Chapter 6 – Specialization in the Semiconductor Industry
by Wally Rhines on 08-16-2019 at 6:00 am

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?

Can a hierarchical Test flow be used on a flat design?
by Tom Simon on 08-15-2019 at 10:00 am

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?

Is Hong Kong a preview of Taiwan? Will HK embolden China to take Taiwan faster?
by Robert Maire on 08-15-2019 at 6:00 am

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?

US-China decoupling and the semiconductor industry – who gets hurt?
by Bart van Hezewijk on 08-14-2019 at 10:00 am

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