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Platform ASICs Target Datacenters, AI

Platform ASICs Target Datacenters, AI
by Bernard Murphy on 07-17-2018 at 7:00 am

There is a well-known progression in the efficiency of different platforms for certain targeted applications such as AI, as measured by performance and performance/Watt. The progression is determined by how much of the application can be run with specialized hardware-assist rather than software, since hardware can be faster… Read More


VLSIT Conference – imec on CFETs

VLSIT Conference – imec on CFETs
by Scotten Jones on 07-16-2018 at 12:00 pm

The 2018 VLSI Technology conference was held in Hawaii in June and is one of the premier conferences covering integrated circuit process technology and circuit design. The Complementary FET (CFET) is an emerging option to continue logic scaling into the next decade. At the conference imec, GLOBALFOUNDRIES, Tokyo Electron and… Read More


Semicon Wrap Up holding pattern in turbulent air

Semicon Wrap Up holding pattern in turbulent air
by Robert Maire on 07-16-2018 at 7:00 am

The stock market hates uncertainty most of all. In the absence of the known, the market will assume the worst or close to it. Right now there is a lot of uncertainty that continues to have more downside beta than upside beta. Everybody we spoke to at Semicon wakes up in the morning wondering what tweet was sent at 5AM that will impact their… Read More


AMAT talks long term AI but short term is ugly

AMAT talks long term AI but short term is ugly
by Robert Maire on 07-15-2018 at 7:00 am

We attended Semicon West Monday and Tuesday, the annual show for the semi equipment industry. Its very clear from discussions with all our sources in the industry that confirm that Samsung has put the brakes on spending on memory and that message was reinforced by declines in their expected profitability due to weaker memory pricing.… Read More


Black Scholes and IC Design

Black Scholes and IC Design
by Daniel Nenni on 07-13-2018 at 7:00 am

This is the sixth in the series of “20 Questions with Wally Rhines”

From the earliest days of my childhood, I was always trying to find ways to make money – paper routes, lawn mowing, coke sales at football games – I did it all. And, except for a motorcycle I bought during junior high school when, at age 14, I could get a driver’s… Read More


Know what 5G is? You’re probably wrong

Know what 5G is? You’re probably wrong
by Tom Simon on 07-12-2018 at 12:00 pm

If you think the transition to 5G will be anything like the transitions before it to 3G or 4G, you are in for a big surprise. Not only will the transition take longer than either of the previous transitions, its ramifications will spread far beyond cell phones and into other areas such as automobiles, AI, healthcare, and commerce. … Read More


Deep Learning: Diminishing Returns?

Deep Learning: Diminishing Returns?
by Bernard Murphy on 07-12-2018 at 7:00 am

Deep learning (DL) has become the oracle of our age – the universal technology we turn to for answers to almost any hard problem. This is not surprising; its strength in image and speech recognition, language processing and multiple other domains amaze and shock us, to the point that we’re now debating AI singularities. But then,… Read More


Cadence’s Smarter and Faster Verification in the Era of Machine Learning, AI, and Big Data Analytics Panel

Cadence’s Smarter and Faster Verification in the Era of Machine Learning, AI, and Big Data Analytics Panel
by Camille Kokozaki on 07-11-2018 at 12:00 pm

I attended on Monday, June 25, DAC’s Opening Day, a Cadence-sponsored Lunch panel. Ann Steffora Mutschler (Semiconductor Engineering) was the Moderator and the Panelists were Jim Hogan (Vista Ventures), David Lacey (HP Enterprise), Shigeo Oshima (Toshiba Memory Corp), Paul Cunningham (Cadence).… Read More


Glad to be part of SemiWiki and my DAC Industry Report

Glad to be part of SemiWiki and my DAC Industry Report
by Mark Gilbert on 07-11-2018 at 7:00 am

Welcome to my newly relocated column, I am so excited about my new relationship with Daniel Nenni, and the other esteemed bloggers on SemiWiki. For those who do not know me, I have been a featured columnist on another EDA portal for the past 12-plus years, and in EDA for 20-plus years. As the leading recruiter in our industry, (or so … Read More


A New Kind of Analog EDA Company

A New Kind of Analog EDA Company
by Daniel Payne on 07-10-2018 at 12:00 pm

My IC design career started out with circuit design of DRAMS, so I got to quickly learn all about transistor-level design at the number one IDM in the world, Intel at the time. In the early days, circa 1978 we circuit designers actually had few EDA tools, mostly a SPICE circuit simulator followed by manual extraction, manual netlisting,… Read More