At the SPIE Advanced Lithography Conference imec published a number of papers on EUV, multi-patterning and other lithography issues. In addition to seeing several of the papers presented I had a chance to sit down with imec’s director of advanced patterning, Greg McIntyre. In this article I will summarize my discussions… Read More
Think Quantum Computing is Hype? Mastercard Begs to DisagreeJust got an opportunity to write a blog…Read More
TSMC Kumamoto: Pioneering Japan's Semiconductor RevivalIn the lush landscapes of Kumamoto Prefecture, on…Read More
Memory Matters: The State of Embedded NVM (eNVM) 2025Make a difference and take this short survey.…Read More
5 Lessons the Semiconductor Industry Can Learn from GamingBy Kamal Khan The semiconductor world has always…Read MoreEDA CEO Outlook 2017
A long standing tradition has returned to EDA: The CEO Outlook sponsored by ESDA (formerly EDAC) which alone is worth the price of membership! Not only do you get a free meal, the event included quality networking time with the semiconductor elite. In the past, financial analysts moderated this event holding the CEO’s feet to the… Read More
IoT in the Cloud with Microsoft and Mentor
I cycle for fitness five days per week and use the Strava.com site to post my rides, analyze the ride data and chat with other cyclists, however in February this year the Amazon Web Services went down which crashed Strava, making me sad and nervous at the same time. Of course, there are alternatives to Amazon Web Services and the engineers… Read More
Lip-Bu on Opportunity
Given a chance to talk with someone as connected as Lip-Bu Tan (President and CEO of Cadence and Chairman of the VC firm Walden International), it is tempting to ask all the usual questions about industry growth and directions in cloud, automotive, IIoT, AI and so on. I wanted to try something different. If you make a living (or plan… Read More
Approaches for EM, IR and Thermal Analysis of ICs
As an engineer I’ve learned how to trade off using various EDA tools based on the accuracy requirements and the time available to complete a project. EDA vendors have been offering software tools to help us with reliability concerns like EM, IR drop and thermal analysis for several years now. Last week I attended a webinar … Read More
A Self-Contained Software-Driven Prototype
You’re building an IP, subsystem or SoC and you want to use a prototype together with a software testbench to drive extensive validation testing. I’m not talking here about the software running on the IP/SoC processor(s); the testbench should wrap around the whole DUT. This is a very common requirement. The standard approach to… Read More
3D Product Design Collaboration in MCAD and ECAD Platforms
Consumer electronics demand aggressive mechanical enclosure design — product volume, weight, shape, and connector access are all critical design optimization criteria. Mechanical CAD (MCAD) software platforms are used by product engineers to develop the enclosure definition — the integration of the PCB design… Read More
The CDNLive Keynotes
I’m developing a taste for user-group meetings. In my (fairly) recently assumed role as a member of the media, I’m only allowed into the keynotes, but from what I have seen, vendors work hard to make these fresh and compelling each year through big-bang product updates and industry/academic leaders talking about their work in bleeding-edge… Read More
NetSpeed Taking a Ride with Autonomous Automobiles
The push for autonomous automobiles continues at a rapid pace. Last week a new conference was held in Santa Clara, CA by the Linley Group focused on Autonomous Hardware. The group included presentations from GLOBAL FOUNDRIES, Synopsys, NetSpeed Systems, Arteris, EMBC, Cadence, CEVA, ARM and Trilumina covering ADAS and autonomous… Read More
1.2 Terabit/s C2C Interface? Only with Interlaken!
If you are familiar with high bandwidth networking applications, you probably know this chip-to-chip (C2C) interface protocol. Interlaken architecture, fully flexible, configurable and scalable, is also an elegant answer to the need for very high bandwidth C2C communication. Interlaken is elegant because the protocol … Read More



AI RTL Generation versus AI RTL Verification