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DAC 2018 Potpourri

DAC 2018 Potpourri
by Alex Tan on 07-03-2018 at 12:00 pm

The venue
Despite of being held at the new three-story Moscone West building, this year 55th DAC in San Francisco bore many similarities as compared with last year’s. Similar booth decors and floorplan positioning of the big two, Synopsys and Cadence, which were across of each other and right next to the first floor entrance –although… Read More


Dragonfly-NB2: You Can Have It All in Your IoT Device

Dragonfly-NB2: You Can Have It All in Your IoT Device
by Bernard Murphy on 07-03-2018 at 7:00 am

I wrote last month about CEVA’s Dragonfly-NB1 platform, a single-chip IoT solution supporting narrow-band cellular communication; this can meet aggressive total solution price-targets for high-volume deployment, long-range access and the low-power needed for 10+ year battery lifetimes. That solution, based on Release… Read More


IITC – Imec Presents Copper, Cobalt and Ruthenium Interconnect Results

IITC – Imec Presents Copper, Cobalt and Ruthenium Interconnect Results
by Scotten Jones on 07-02-2018 at 12:00 pm

The IEEE Interconnect Technology Conference (IITC): Advanced Metallization Conference was held June 4th through 7th in Santa Clara. Imec presented multiple papers on comparing copper, cobalt and ruthenium interconnect. One paper in particular caught my eye: Marleen H. van der Veen, # N. Heylen, O. Varela Pedreira, S. Decoster,… Read More


55DAC Trip Report with Drama

55DAC Trip Report with Drama
by Daniel Nenni on 07-02-2018 at 7:00 am

This was my 35th DAC and it did not disappoint, especially when it came to the DAC Drama Department. This year DAC proved once again that it is THE place for semiconductor professionals and academics to learn and network. The big news is that Synopsys did not reserve a booth for 56DAC in Las Vegas next year which resulted in quite a bit… Read More


Trump is the greatest gift that Twitter could have asked for!

Trump is the greatest gift that Twitter could have asked for!
by Vivek Wadhwa on 07-01-2018 at 7:00 am

In the 1930s, psychologist B.F. Skinner put rats in boxes and taught them to push levers to receive a food pellet. The pushed the levers only when hungry, though. To get the rats to press the lever repeatedly, even when they did not need food, he gave them a pellet only some of the time, a concept now known as intermittent variable rewards.… Read More


The TI Experience and Morris Chang

The TI Experience and Morris Chang
by Daniel Nenni on 06-29-2018 at 7:00 am

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

I joined Texas Instruments (TI) in 1972. Most Stanford PhD’s in my field at that time remained in the Bay Area to work for Fairchild, National Semiconductor, HP or other local companies. But TI was the largest semiconductor company and there were plenty… Read More


The Technology China Trade Growing Snowball

The Technology China Trade Growing Snowball
by Robert Maire on 06-28-2018 at 12:00 pm

As we have been warning for months the China trade issue continues to grow and accelerate. As we are approaching the June 30th cliff (when export sanctions will be announced) it seems as if the administration has given the industry a kick so we fly even further. The US will also restrict Chinese investment in US tech companies. The … Read More


Design for Power: An Insider View

Design for Power: An Insider View
by Bernard Murphy on 06-28-2018 at 7:00 am

The second keynote at Mentor’s U2U this year was given by Hooman Moshar, VP of Engineering at Broadcom, on the always (these days) important topic of design for power. This is one of my favorite areas. I have, I think, a decent theoretical background in the topic, but I definitely need a periodic refresh on the ground reality from the… Read More


Imec technology forum 2018 – the future of scaling

Imec technology forum 2018 – the future of scaling
by Scotten Jones on 06-27-2018 at 12:00 pm

At the Imec technology forum in Belgium, Dan Mocuta and Juliana Radu presented “Evolution and Disruption: A Perspective on Logic Scaling and Beyond”, I also had a chance to sit down with Dan and discuss the presentation.

Device scaling

Scaling of devices will only get you so far, you need to look at new devices and new… Read More


When Why and How Should You Use Embedded FPGA Technology

When Why and How Should You Use Embedded FPGA Technology
by Alok Sanghavi on 06-27-2018 at 7:00 am

If integrating an embedded FPGA (eFPGA) into your ASIC or SoC design strikes you as odd, it shouldn’t. ICs have been absorbing almost every component on a circuit board for decades, starting with transistors, resistors, and capacitors — then progressing to gates, ALUs, microprocessors, and memories. FPGAs are simply one more… Read More