Functional safety (FuSa) is a big deal, especially when driving a car. My beloved 1998 Acura RL recently exhibited a strange behavior at 239K miles, after making a turn the steering wheel would stay tilted in the direction of the last turn instead of straightening out. The auto mechanic pinpointed the failure to the ball joints, … Read More
Intelligent Networks: Power, Reliability, and Maintenance in Telecom — Webinar PreviewThe upcoming webinar “Intelligent Networks: Power, Reliability, and…Read More
Custom IC Design using Additive LearningCustom IC design has demanding technical requirements to…Read More
LUBIS EDA: Addressing the Verification Bottleneck in Modern Chip DesignLUBIS EDA is a Germany-based EDA company that…Read More
Smarter IC Layout Parasitic AnalysisIC layout parasitics dominate the performance of custom…Read MoreWhat Fairchild, AMD, Actel and Jurassic Park Have in Common
Me.
In the early stories of this series (Weeks three though six), I talked about what I believe were the three seminal events in the history of the semiconductor: Shockley’s invention of the transistor, Noyce’s invention of the integrated circuit, and Intel’s 1971 — the introductions of the first commercially successful… Read More
Tesla Stakes Insurance Claim!
In its most recent shareholders’ meeting Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk noted that the Tesla Model 3 is the highest revenue producing car in the U.S. and fourth best-selling by unit volume. He also noted Tesla’s vehicles’ industry-leading fuel efficiency and range.
Musk took the further step of emphasizing the lower cost of
Memory Manifesto – Examining the “new (slower) normal” of the memory industry
- The perfect storm that drove memory is over
- The “new normal” goes back to older model
- The capex & tech pendulum swings to logic
We try to examine the future of the memory segment of the semiconductor industry given the current market and technology drivers combined with historical behavior.
Passing the Baton
The memory market… Read More
WEBNAR: How ASIC/SoC Rapid Prototyping Solutions Can Help You!
If you are considering an FPGA prototype for an ASIC or SoC as part of your verification strategy, which more and more chip designers today are doing to enhance verification coverage of complex designs, please take advantage of this webinar replay:
How ASIC/SoC Prototyping Solutions Can Help You!
Or to get a quick quote from S2C … Read More
Chapter 7 – Competitive Dynamics in the Electronic Design Automation Industry
Electronic design automation, or EDA, became the term used for computer software and hardware developed to aid in the design and verification of electronics, from integrated circuits to printed circuit boards to the integrated electronics of large systems like planes, trains and cars. As the EDA industry evolved, certain … Read More
Speeding up Circuit Simulation using a GPU Approach
The old adage that “Time is Money” certainly rings true in the semiconductor world where IC designers are being challenged with getting their new designs to market quickly, and correctly in the first spin of silicon. Circuit designers work at the transistor-level, and circuit simulation is one of the most time-consuming… Read More
Webinar: Using Embedded FPGA to Improve Machine Learning SOCs
By its very definition, machine learning (ML) hardware requires flexibility. In turn, each ML application has its own fine grain requirements. Specific hardware implementations that include specialized processing elements are often desirable for machine learning chips. At the top of the priority list is parallel processing.… Read More
Low Power Design – Art vs. Science
I have heard many times before that low power and mixed-signal design is more Art than Science. I believe this is a misconception. Science is a field that builds upon previous experiences and discoveries. Art primarily seeks out creative differences, things we have not seen before that evoke emotion. The most successful designers… Read More
Semicon West 2019 – Day 4 – Soitec
Last year at Semicon I sat down with Soitec and got an update on the company. You can read my write up from last year here. A key point last year was Soitec was continuing to be profitable and grow after several years of financial struggles.
On Thursday, July 11th I got to sit down with Soitec’s CEO, Paul Boudre and get an update on… Read More


A Century of Miracles: From the FET’s Inception to the Horizons Ahead