We have gotten to the point with automotive safety where we are happy to hear that ONLY 18,000 people died on the nation’s highways in the first six months of 2017. That’s right. That is good news – 100+ people were killed every day so far this year in, by or as a result of cars.


Apple iPhone Super Cycle Update!
In 2014 Apple released the iPhone 6 which included the first SoC built on a TSMC (20nm) process. This phone started what many call a “Super Cycle” of people upgrading. According to Apple, they now have more than 1 billion activated devices so this super cycle could be seriously super, absolutely.… Read More
Getting More Productive Coding with SystemVerilog
HDL languages are a matter of engineering personal preference and often corporate policy dictates which language you should be using on your next SoC design. In the early days we used our favorite text-based editor like Vi or Emacs, my choice was Vi. The problem with these text-based editors of course is that they really don’t… Read More
Virtual Prototyping With Connection to Assembly
Virtual prototyping has become popular both as a way to accelerate software development and to establish a contract between system/software development teams and hardware development and verification. System companies with their tight vertical integration lean naturally to executable contracts to streamline communication… Read More
12 Myths about Blockchain Technology
Blockchain, the “distributed ledger” technology, has emerged as an object of intense interest in the tech industry and beyond. Blockchain technology offers a way of recording transactions or any digital interaction in a way that is designed to be secure, transparent, highly resistant to outages, auditable, and… Read More
High Bandwidth Memory ASIC SiPs for Advanced Products!
When someone says, “2.5D packaging” my first thought is TSMC and my second thought is Herb Reiter. Herb has more than 40 years of semiconductor experience and he has been a tireless promoter of 2.5D packaging for many years. Herb writes for and works with industry organizations on 2.5D work groups and events at conferences… Read More
Why Open and Supported Interfaces Matter
Back in the early 1980’s during the nascent years of electronic design automation (EDA), I worked at Texas Instruments supporting what would become their merchant ASIC business. Back then, life was a bit different. The challenge we faced was to make our ASIC library available on as many EDA flows as we could to give as many users as… Read More
Analysis and Signoff for Restructuring
For the devices we build today, design and implementation are unavoidably entangled. Design for low-power, test, reuse and optimized layout are no longer possible without taking implementation factors into account in design, and vice-versa. But design teams can’t afford to iterate indefinitely between these phases, so they… Read More
Customizable Analog IP No Longer a Pipe Dream
Configurable analog IP has traditionally been a tough nut to crack. Digital IP, of course, now provides for wide configurability for varying applications. In the same way that analog design has remained less deterministic as compared to digital design, analog IP has also tended to be less flexible. However, the tide may be turning… Read More
Bluetooth 5 IP is Ready for SoC Integration
Bluetooth®, WiFi, LTE, and 5G technologies enable wireless connectivity for a range of applications. While each offer unique features and advantages, designers need now to decide which protocol to integrate in a single chip after having test the market by using wireless off-chip solutions. Bluetooth 5 builds upon the success… Read More
Intel’s Pearl Harbor Moment