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
Webinar – Fabless: The Transformation of the Semiconductor Industry 2019 Update!
As more than 343 people (and counting) know, we will be releasing the 2019 updated PDF version of our first book “Fabless: The Transformation of the Semiconductor Industry” via handout at a live webinar. The response has been overwhelming and I want to personally thank you. The webinar will be a brief overview of the book with a question… Read More
300mm Fab Watch 2019!
Unless you are new to SemiWiki you should be familiar with Scotten Jones, founder of IC Knowledge, semiconductor process expert, and blogger extraordinaire. Scott joined SemiWiki in 2014 and has been blogging ever since with 130 posted thus far.
Scott’s, company, IC Knowledge LLC, is the world leader in cost modeling of… Read More
Chapter 5 – Consolidation of the Semiconductor Industry
For the last decade, semiconductor industry analysts have been writing articles and giving presentations that predict the increasing consolidation of the industry to the point where a few large companies dominate worldwide sales of semiconductor components. In recent years there has been some justification for this view… Read More
WEBINAR: The Brave New World of Customized Memory
The need to design low power devices is not new. However, the criticality of lowering the power consumption of chip designs has never been as important as it is now. In 1989, I purchased one of the first consumer cell phones produced by Panasonic. The battery was the size of a brick, but only about a third of the thickness. If the battery… Read More
Tortuga Webinar: Ensuring System Level Security Through HW/SW Verification
We all know (I hope) that security is important so we’re willing to invest time and money in this area but there are a couple of problems. First there’s no point in making your design secure if it’s not competitive and making it competitive is hard enough, so the great majority of resource and investment is going to go into that objective.… Read More
5G Auction without Action = Fraud
“We don’t need 10 Mbit/s, but rather basic bandwidth and guaranteed latency. We need coverage!” thus spoke BMW Senior Vice President of Electronics Christoph Grote at the recent Automobil-Elektronik Kongress in Ludwigsburg, Germany. Grote was making this plea in the context of the onset of 5G technology.… Read More
Insurers Not Ready to Discount Premiums on ADAS
Think because your new car is loaded with ADAS your insurance company should give you a break on premiums? Think again. The purpose of all those fancy features is to reduce the risk of an accident or damage to your car, either of which could be costly to your insurance company and quite possibly to you also. If you’re paying extra for … Read More
Weebit Nano Moves into the Mainstream with Customer Adoption