The design of electronic systems for aerospace applications shares many of the same constraints as apply to consumer products – e.g., cost (including NRE), power dissipation, size, time-to-market. Both market segments are driven to leverage the integration benefits of process scaling. … Read More
A Webinar About Electrical Verification – The Invisible Bottleneck in IC DesignElectrical rule checking (ERC) is a standard part…Read More
Signal Integrity Verification Using SPICE and IBIS-AMIHigh-speed signals enable electronic systems by using memory…Read More
imec on the Benefits of ASICs and How to Seize ThemIn an era where product differentiation increasingly depends…Read More
MZ Technologies Launches Advanced Packaging Design Video SeriesIn a significant move aimed at empowering semiconductor…Read MoreThe Shape of Semiconductor Things to Come
Given that the semiconductor industry is clearly in the midst of a down cycle (even though there are cycle deniers, also members of the flat earth society…), most investors and industry participants want to know the timing of the down cycle and the shape of the recovery as we want to know when its safe to buy the stocks again. … Read More
Technology Behind the Chip
Tom Dillinger and I attended the Silvaco SURGE 2018 event in Silicon Valley last week with several hundred of our semiconductor brethren. Tom has a couple blogs ready to go but first let’s talk about the keynote by Silvaco CEO David Dutton. David isn’t your average EDA CEO, he spent the first 8 years of his career at Intel then spent … Read More
ARM TechCon 2018 is Upon Us!
ARM TechCon is one of the most influential conferences in the semiconductor ecosystem without a doubt. This year ARM TechCon has moved from the Santa Clara Convention Center to the much larger convention center in San Jose. Last year the conference seemed to be busting at the seams so this move makes complete sense. A little less … Read More
EDA Cost and Pricing
This is the nineteenth in the series of “20 Questions with Wally Rhines”
When I moved from the semiconductor industry to Mentor, I expected most of my technology and business experience to apply similarly in EDA software. To some extent, that was correct. But there was a fundamental difference that required a change… Read More
How to Increase Energy Efficiency for IoT SoC?
If you have read the white paper recently launched by Dolphin, “New Power Management IP Solution from Dolphin Integration can dramatically increase SoC Energy Efficiency”, you should already know about the theory. This is a good basis to go further and discover some real-life examples, like Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) chip in … Read More
One Less Reason to Delay that Venture
Many of us dream about the wonderful widget we could build that would revolutionize our homes, parking, health, gaming, factories or whatever domain gets our creative juices surging, but how many of us take it the next step? Even when you’re ready to live on your savings, prototypes can be expensive and royalties add to the pain. … Read More
Detail-Route-Centric Physical Implementation for 7nm
For many years TSMC has provided IC design implementation guidance as viewed from the process and manufacturing standpoints. The last time TSMC Reference Flow incremented, it was version 12.0 back in 2011. Since then, increased design, process and packaging related complexities of the advanced nodes have demanded more focused… Read More
Crossfire Baseline Checks for Clean IP Part II
In our previous article bearing the same title, we discussed the recommended baseline checks covering cell and pin presence, back-end, and some front-end checks related to functional equivalency. In this article, we’ll cover the extensive list of characterization checks, that include timing arcs, NLDM, CCS, ECSM/EM, and … Read More
Should Companies be Allowed to Hack Back after a Cyberattack?
Potential for Hack-Back Legislation. Government officials and experts are weighing in on the concept of ‘hacking back’, the practice of potentially allowing U.S. companies to track down cyber attackers and retaliate.
Former head of the CIA and NSA outlined his thoughts to the Fifth Domain on the Hack Back issue currently being… Read More


Quantum Computing Technologies and Challenges