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eFabless Design Challenge Results!

eFabless Design Challenge Results!
by Daniel Nenni on 03-28-2017 at 7:00 am

Will community engineering work for semiconductors? Will anyone show up? Well, the efabless design challenge is complete and the results are both interesting and encouraging, absolutely!

Efabless completed its low power voltage reference IP design challenge on Monday, March 13. This was a very interesting event that we followed… Read More


Who knew designing PLL’s was so complicated?

Who knew designing PLL’s was so complicated?
by Tom Simon on 03-27-2017 at 12:00 pm

Well it comes as no surprise to those that use and design them, that PLL’s are a world unto themselves and very complicated indeed. With PLL’s we are talking about analog designs that rely on ring oscillators or LC tanks. They are needed on legacy nodes, like the ones that IoT chips are based on, and they are crucial for high speed advanced… Read More


Virtual Modeling Drives Auto Systems TTM

Virtual Modeling Drives Auto Systems TTM
by Bernard Murphy on 03-27-2017 at 7:00 am

The electronics market for automotive applications is distinguished by multiple factors. This is a very fast growing market – electronics now account for 40% of a car’s cost, up from 20% just 10 years ago. New technologies are gaining acceptance, for greener and safer operation and for a more satisfying consumer experience. Platforms… Read More


Talking Cars, Quiet Qualcomm

Talking Cars, Quiet Qualcomm
by Roger C. Lanctot on 03-25-2017 at 12:00 pm

Qualcomm is a technology titan standing astride both the automotive and wireless industries with 10’s of thousands of patents, 340M automotive-grade chipsets shipped and a leading position in the connected car industry. So it is fascinating to find executives at the company almost totally tongue-tied of late when it … Read More


Mobileye’s Revenge

Mobileye’s Revenge
by Roger C. Lanctot on 03-25-2017 at 7:00 am

Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk has famously dismissed hydrogen fuel (“fool”) cells and LiDAR and even parted company with Mobileye over automated driving strategy. Now it appears that Mobileye has gotten a measure of revenge with broad implications for the automotive industry, Tesla Motors and automated driving.Read More


China to become largest semiconductor producer

China to become largest semiconductor producer
by Bill Jewell on 03-24-2017 at 12:00 pm

China has long been the largest market for semiconductors, accounting for over 50% of the global market for the last five years. China is now on track to become the largest semiconductor manufacturer in the next few years. The chart below shows China’s integrated circuit (IC) industry from 2010 to 2016, according to the China Semiconductor… Read More


ARMing AI/ML

ARMing AI/ML
by Bernard Murphy on 03-24-2017 at 7:00 am

There is huge momentum building behind AI, machine learning (ML) and deep learning; unsurprisingly ARM has been busy preparing their own contribution to this space. They announced this week a new multi-core micro-architecture called DynamIQ, covering all Cortex-A processors, whose purpose is in their words, “to redefine Read More


How to Design a Custom SoC with Analog, webinar from ARM and Tanner EDA

How to Design a Custom SoC with Analog, webinar from ARM and Tanner EDA
by Daniel Payne on 03-23-2017 at 12:00 pm

Leading edge SoC designs can contain billions of transistors, cost over $10M to design, and take over 18 months to deliver, but not all SoCs require that much complexity, cost and time. In fact, there is a growing class of SoC designs that integrate the popular ARM Cortex-M0 processor along with analog blocks that work with sensors… Read More


Samsung Should Just Buy eSilicon Already!

Samsung Should Just Buy eSilicon Already!
by Daniel Nenni on 03-22-2017 at 12:00 pm

As you all know I’m a big fan of the ASIC business dating back to the start of the fabless semiconductor transformation where anybody could send a design spec to an ASIC company and get a chip back. The ASIC business model also started the smart phone revolution when Samsung built the first Apple SoCs for the iPhones and iPads.

Today … Read More