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Chapter Eleven – International Semiconductor Competition

Chapter Eleven – International Semiconductor Competition
by Wally Rhines on 09-20-2019 at 6:00 am

Semiconductor industry evolution was largely a U.S. phenomenon.  While there were important contributions made by persons all over the world, the basic technology grew from the invention of the transistor at Bell Labs which was licensed broadly in the U.S.  That created a level playing field for all who wanted to become producers. … Read More


Is Samsung having problems with 7NM? Do long lines at TSMC prove that?

Is Samsung having problems with 7NM? Do long lines at TSMC prove that?
by Robert Maire on 09-19-2019 at 2:00 pm

Reports of increasing TSMC 7NM lead times
There have been a number of increasing media reports about lengthening leads times for TSMC 7NM process. From what we have been able to determine its not due to TSMC having a yield bust or other production issues, it is simply one of stronger than expected demand.

There have been reports of … Read More


Speeding Up Physical Failure Analysis (PFA)

Speeding Up Physical Failure Analysis (PFA)
by Daniel Payne on 09-19-2019 at 10:00 am

Mentor - design defect

The cost of an IC depends on many factors like: NRE, masks, fabrication, testing, packaging. Product engineers are tasked with testing each part and understanding what exactly is limiting the yields. Every company has a methodology for Physical Failure Analysis (PFA), and the challenge is to make this process as quick as possible,… Read More


WEBINAR: AI-Powered Automated Timing Arc Prediction for AMS IP’s

WEBINAR: AI-Powered Automated Timing Arc Prediction for AMS IP’s
by Daniel Nenni on 09-19-2019 at 6:00 am

A directed approach to reduce Risk and improve Quality

Safety and reliability are critical for most applications of integrated circuits (ICs) today. Even more so when they serve markets like ADAS, autonomous driving, healthcare and aeronautics where they are paramount. Safety and reliability transcend all levels of an integrated… Read More


The Korea/Japan trade war benefits US more than US/China hurts US

The Korea/Japan trade war benefits US more than US/China hurts US
by Robert Maire on 09-18-2019 at 10:00 am

Investors underestimate Japan/Korea trade war, US chip equip companies get collateral benefit, Long term share shifts in China & Korea, Creates near term upside for US companies, Memory Chip Price “Mirage”.
The lesser known trade war
While the market and the news has been pre-occupied with the ongoing soap
Read More

Glasses and Open Architecture for Computer Vision

Glasses and Open Architecture for Computer Vision
by Bernard Murphy on 09-18-2019 at 6:00 am

Fisheye view

You know that AI can now look at an image and detect significant objects like a pedestrian or a nearby car. But had you thought about a need for corrective lenses or other vision aids? Does AI vision decay over time, like ours, so that it needs increasing help to read prescription labels and identify road signs at a distance?

In fact no.… Read More


Learn About Implementing SmartNICs, an Achronix White Paper

Learn About Implementing SmartNICs, an Achronix White Paper
by Randy Smith on 09-17-2019 at 10:00 am

We have all seen the announcements to provide ever-increasing network capabilities within the data centers.  Enabling these advances are improvements in connectivity including SerDes, PAM4, optical solutions, and many others. It seems 40G is old news now, and the current push is for 400G – things are changing very quickly.… Read More


Major Drone Attack Against Global Oil Production Showcases Weak Cybersecurity Thinking

Major Drone Attack Against Global Oil Production Showcases Weak Cybersecurity Thinking
by Matthew Rosenquist on 09-17-2019 at 6:00 am

Drones attacked an oil processing facility last week and shut down half of all Saudi capacity, representing about 5% of the world’s daily oil production. We have seen how a botnet of compromised home appliances can take down a sizeable chunk of the internet, control structures of electricity and other critical infrastructures… Read More


Automatic Documentation Generation for RTL Design and Verification

Automatic Documentation Generation for RTL Design and Verification
by Daniel Nenni on 09-16-2019 at 10:00 am

Ask any hardware or software engineer working on a product, and they will tell you that writing documentation is a pain. Customers have high expectations for user manuals and reference guides, usually requiring a team of technical writers to satisfy their requirements. In order to meet time-to-market deadlines, documentation… Read More


More Actel Foundry Woes: Andy Grove and Intel

More Actel Foundry Woes: Andy Grove and Intel
by John East on 09-16-2019 at 6:00 am

The foundry problem continued to plague us at Actel.  We had a really complex process! But  —- we needed state of the art feature sizes if we were to compete with Xilinx.  TI and Matsushita had been doing a good job for us, but not in fabs with state of the art technology.  We were two process generations behind! At two generations… Read More