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Having Your Digital Cake and Eating It Too

Having Your Digital Cake and Eating It Too
by Bill Montgomery on 01-24-2019 at 12:00 pm

Anybody who’s ever read the iconic MAD magazine would be familiar with the wordless Spy vs Spy cartoon. First published in January, 1961, it features two agents involved in stereotypical and comical espionage activities. One is dressed in white, and the other in black, but they are otherwise identical. A parody of the politicalRead More


Intel Swaggers at CES

Intel Swaggers at CES
by Daniel Payne on 01-24-2019 at 7:00 am

Intel started out as a DRAM company using planar NMOS technology, then later on added EPROM and Microprocessors to the product mix. Their CPU technology enabled the dynamic growth of the PC industry starting with the IBM PC back in 1981 and continuing all of the way to this day. They long ago dropped out of the DRAM marketplace and began… Read More


Contrarian Views on Quantum Computing

Contrarian Views on Quantum Computing
by Bernard Murphy on 01-23-2019 at 12:00 pm

I’m not opposed to the exotic ideas which capture public attention from time to time, but I do enjoy puncturing a popular expectation demanding every novel technology be a revolutionary breakthrough. I’ve already made my small contribution to driving a stake through the heart of claims that quantum computing (QC) will replace… Read More


Accelerating 5G Design Innovation Through Simulation Workshop

Accelerating 5G Design Innovation Through Simulation Workshop
by Daniel Nenni on 01-22-2019 at 12:00 pm

DesignCon is coming up, kicking off the first of many industry conferences for the year. It’s at the Santa Clara Convention Center which is the best venue in Northern California. Not only is this a semiconductor crowd, it’s also a systems crowd covering chips, boards, and systems. More than 175 companies participate with an expected… Read More


TSMC and Semiconductors 2019 and Beyond

TSMC and Semiconductors 2019 and Beyond
by Daniel Nenni on 01-22-2019 at 7:00 am

TSMC has always been my bellwether and for 2019 I think we need to pay careful attention. Bad economic news has been spreading inside the fabless semiconductor ecosystem (tool and IP budgets have been tightening) but I think it is a bit premature. Let’s take a look at the TSMC 2018 Q4 earnings call and talk more about it in the comments… Read More


DAC 2019 Will Be Even More IP Friendly!

DAC 2019 Will Be Even More IP Friendly!
by Eric Esteve on 01-21-2019 at 12:00 pm

DAC 2019 will take place in Las Vegas (June 2-6) this year before moving back to San Francisco in 2020 and for the next 5 years. Considering the various rumors about merging the conference, or even the end of DAC, this is a very good news! Not only for Design Automation, but, as we will see, for the IP industry.

In fact, if we look at the exhibitor… Read More


At Last, Package and Chip integration for RF Design

At Last, Package and Chip integration for RF Design
by Tom Simon on 01-21-2019 at 7:00 am

It seems that it has always been that there were packages and ICs, and in the design tool world “never the twain shall meet”. The tools for designing packages were completely separate from the tools used to design IC’s. This was so profoundly true that even after Cadence merged with Valid Logic back in the early 90’s, their Allegro … Read More


TSMC and Apple Aftermath

TSMC and Apple Aftermath
by Robert Maire on 01-21-2019 at 7:00 am

TSMC reported an in line quarter, as expected and also reported down Q1 guidance, also as expected. The only thing some investors may have been caught off guard about is the magnitude of the expected drop, 14%, from $9.4B to $7.35B. This is the largest quarter over quarter drop for TSMC in a very long time. Importantly for TSMC, 7NM … Read More


Remote Control: Crazy Likes Company

Remote Control: Crazy Likes Company
by Roger C. Lanctot on 01-20-2019 at 12:00 pm

Three years ago Chris Valasek and Charlie Miller hacked an FCA Jeep to demonstrate the ability to remotely control a vehicle. The stunt was intended to make the point that the automotive industry had a problem with cybersecurity and the consequences of failing to deal with this vulnerability could be catastrophic.

As 2019 arrives,… Read More