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How Apple Became a Force in the Semiconductor Industry

How Apple Became a Force in the Semiconductor Industry
by Daniel Nenni on 02-05-2019 at 7:00 am

From our book “Mobile Unleashed”, this is the semiconductor history of Apple computer:

Observed in hindsight after the iPhone, the distant struggles of Apple in 1997 seem strange, almost hard to fathom. Had it not been for the shrewd investment in ARM, Apple may have lacked the cash needed to survive its crisis. However,… Read More


Getting to 56G Takes The Right Stuff

Getting to 56G Takes The Right Stuff
by Tom Simon on 02-04-2019 at 12:00 pm

During the 1940s when aerospace engineers were attempting to break the sound barrier for the first time, they were confronting a slew of new technical issues that had never been dealt with before, and in some cases never seen before. In subsonic flight airflow was predictable and well understood. In crossing the sound barrier, … Read More


Jeephack Repercussions

Jeephack Repercussions
by Roger C. Lanctot on 02-04-2019 at 7:00 am

Automotive cybersecurity is an intractable nightmare with significant though inchoate implications for consumers and existential exposure for auto makers. This reality became painfully clear earlier this month when the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear FiatChrysler Automotive’s appeal in a class action lawsuit over … Read More


MENTOR at DVCON 2019

MENTOR at DVCON 2019
by Daniel Nenni on 02-04-2019 at 7:00 am

The semiconductor conference season has started out strong and the premier verification gathering is coming up at the end of this month. SemiWiki bloggers, myself included, will be at the conference covering verification so you don’t have to. Verification is consuming more and more of the design cycle so I expect this event to … Read More


CES 2019 Stormy Weather for IBM

CES 2019 Stormy Weather for IBM
by Roger C. Lanctot on 02-03-2019 at 12:00 pm

Ginni Rometty, chairman, president and CEO of IBM was kind enough to take on the task of an hour-long keynote at CES 2019 in Las Vegas last week. She used the opportunity to highlight three areas of computational innovation at IBM – deep data, broad AI and quantum systems – with the help of three partners: Delta Airlines, Wal-Mart… Read More


Open-Silicon SiFive and Customizable Configurable IP Subsystems

Open-Silicon SiFive and Customizable Configurable IP Subsystems
by Daniel Nenni on 02-01-2019 at 12:00 pm

After 8 SemiWiki years, 4,386 published blogs, and more than 25 million blog views, I can tell you that IP is the most read semiconductor topic, absolutely, and that trend continues. Another correlating trend (from IP Nest) is the semiconductor IP revenue increase in relation to the semiconductor market (minus memory) which more… Read More


How to be Smart About DFT for AI Chips

How to be Smart About DFT for AI Chips
by Tom Simon on 01-31-2019 at 12:00 pm

We have entered the age of AI specific processors, where specialized silicon is being produced to tackle the compute needs of AI. Whether they use GPUs, embedded programmable logic or specialized CPUs, many AI chips are based on parallel processing. This makes sense because of the parallel nature of AI computing. As a result, in… Read More


Secretary Chao Unchained @ CES 2020

Secretary Chao Unchained @ CES 2020
by Roger C. Lanctot on 01-31-2019 at 10:00 am

U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao has agreed to mount the stage at the upcoming Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas to share her vision of the positive economic impact of technology unleashed from regulatory oversight. It’s a powerful message but it’s going to be a tough sell.

Chao is likely taking the… Read More


Qualcomm Attests Benefits of Mentor’s RealTime DRC for P&R

Qualcomm Attests Benefits of Mentor’s RealTime DRC for P&R
by Tom Simon on 01-31-2019 at 7:00 am

When floor planning (FP) and place & route (P&R) tools took over from custom layout tools for standard cell based designs, life became a lot better for designers of large digital chips. The beauty of the new flows was that all the internals of the standard cells and many IP blocks were hidden from view, lightening the load … Read More


The 50th Year of Intel, What Happened in 2018

The 50th Year of Intel, What Happened in 2018
by Daniel Payne on 01-30-2019 at 12:00 pm

2018 was the 50th year for Intel in the semiconductor business, and their Q4 2018 conference call just happened last week, so I’ll get you all caught up on what they talked about. Bob Swan is the CFO and interim CEO, as the company continues to search for a new CEO after Brian K. was ousted for misconduct. Here’s a quick financial… Read More