The traditional ways of boosting computing throughput are either to increase operating frequency or to use multiprocessing. The industry has done a good job of applying these techniques to maintain a steady increase in performance. However, there is a discontinuity in the needs for processing power. Artificial Intelligence… Read More




My advice to the world’s entrepreneurs: Copy and steal the Silicon Valley way
In a videoconference hosted by Indian startup media publication Inc42, I gave entrepreneurs some advice that startled them. I said that instead of trying to invent new things, they should copy and steal all the ideas they can from China, Silicon Valley and the rest of the world. A billion Indians coming online through inexpensive… Read More
Automotive FD-SOI Update
We have been tracking automotive related articles on SemiWiki since 2015 and have published more than 300 automotive blogs thus far that have garnered more than one million views. The automotive publishing pace has picked up quite a bit lately and the number of domains reading them has increased exponentially. So yes, automotive… Read More
Top 10 Highlights of the TSMC 2018 Technology Symposium
Here are the Top 10 highlights from the recent TSMC 2018 Technology Symposium, held in Santa Clara CA. A couple of years ago, TSMC acknowledged the unique requirements of 4 different market segments, which has since guided their process development strategy — Mobile, High-Performance Computing (HPC), Automotive, and… Read More
Samsung 10nm 8nm and 7nm at VLSIT
I got a tip sheet today for the upcoming 2018 Symposia on VLSI Technology & Circuits to be held June 19th through 21st in Honolulu, Hawaii. There is some interesting information on Samsung’s 10nm, 8nm and 7nm processes in the tip sheet:… Read More
IP Vendor Tuning of Your SoC A Practice for Design Success
On April 17, Mick Posner, Director of Product Marketing, IP Subsystems, Hardening & IP Kit solutions held a Webinar entitled ‘Getting more from your IP Vendor, IP Tuned to Your SoC’. This brought back memories of the challenges in days past of making the right choices in IP selection, integration and validation when prudence… Read More
Peering Over the Timing Edge
I wrote recently about a yield problem which mobile vendors have been finding for devices built in advanced technologies. This was a performance issue (the devices worked fine at lower clock speeds), pointing to a discrepancy in some devices between predicted and observed timing. These were experienced design teams, using state… Read More
ISO 26262: Automotive electronics safety gets an update in 2018
In the field of automotive electronics, the year 2011 was a long time ago. So, it is about time that the initial ISO 26262 specification that was adopted back then gets an update. The latest version will be known as ISO26262:2018 and will expand the scope of the original to cover more types of vehicles. It will add an entire section on… Read More
2018 Women in Engineering Achievement Award
Having spent my entire thirty plus year career in semiconductors and design enablement I have seen quite a change in diversity. When I first started I remember thinking that height and weight was the only diversity here in Silicon Valley. My wife really noticed it when she attended her first Design Automation Conference in 1985 … Read More
Virtuoso at CDNLive – A Press Briefing With Yuval Shay
At CDNLive Silicon Valley 2018, I talked with Yuval Shay, Director of Product Management of Cadence Custom IC & PCB Group to scope out some more details on the recent Virtuoso product refresh announced earlier in the morning by Cadence Sr. VP & GM of the same group, Tom Beckley.
Tom shared his view on enabling the fourth industrial… Read More
Semiconductor Equipment Spending Healthy