My first job out of college was with Intel, located in Aloha, Oregon and I did circuit simulations using a proprietary SPICE circuit simulator called ASPEC that was maintained in-house. While doing some circuit simulations one day I noticed that an internal node in one of my circuits was gradually getting higher and higher, even… Read More




Climbing the dimensions (part 1)
Translated and adapted from an article by Jaime Poniachik
The novel Flatland was written en 1884 by Edwin A. Abbot. This novel describes a fantastic, two-dimensional, flat world. Hence the name of the novel. This world has living beings. They have only two dimensions and they move in a plane which they cannot abandon.
It is not difficult… Read More
Takata’s Deepest Betrayal
There’s been a lot of betrayal in the automotive industry over the past few years. Consumers have been betrayed by car makers that failed to identify, report or anticipate problems or that deliberately misled their customers. But no betrayal was deeper than that of Takata and the ongoing airbag recall effort. And Takata’s… Read More
Smarter Cities and The Internet of Things
Parking meters, information signs, CCTV, traffic signals – almost everywhere that you look in a modern city, there’s a microchip embedded device, connecting to what has now become known as the all-encompassing Internet of Things. Although we often overlook the fact, cities are, in essence, huge and complex businesses. Cities… Read More
Processors, Processors, Processors Everywhere
At first glance a processor conference might seem a bit arcane, however we live in an era where processors are ubiquitous. There is hardly any aspect of our lives that they do not touch in some way. Last week at the Linley Processor Conference the topics included deep learning, autonomous driving, energy, manufacturing, smart cities,… Read More
Of distant dreams and violent delights
Another report today of a Samsung Galaxy Note 7 catching fire, this time an allegedly refurbished unit, takes us back to the turning point in Samsung mobile phone history. It’s not the first time a defective Samsung phone – or a pile of thousands of them – has been on fire.
Samsung Chairman Lee Kun-Hee issued a powerful edict to his mobile… Read More
You’re Going to Want to Attend the Cadence Photonics Summit Workshop, October 19-20
Photonics IC’s (PIC’s) are used to transmit and receive data through a (single-mode or multi-mode) optical fiber carrier, and provide the requisite electro-optical conversion for system integration. The architecture of the PIC spans the full characteristics of data transmission and reception:
- light generation
Typically,… Read More
The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Neural Nets
In 1960, the Nobel-winning theoretical physicist Eugene Wigner published an article titled “The unreasonable effectiveness of Mathematics in the Natural Sciences”. His point was that, at least in the physical and chemical worlds, mathematics is able to describe the behavior of nature to an uncannily accurate degree, which… Read More
Free Copy of Mobile Unleashed: The History of ARM!
As most of you know SemiWiki published a book which is a really nice history of ARM. We have received many compliments on it and we are very proud. As a thank you to all SemiWiki members I would like to offer a free electronic version of the book (PDF). You can access it via the attachment at the bottom of this wiki:
"Rigid-Flex Design is Coming"
Printed circuit boards that incorporate a combination of traditional PCB technology with flexible substrates, aka rigid-flex designs, have enabled an increasing variety of product designs, that leverage the unique physical form factor and lightweight options that rigid-flex technology offers. Yet, this technology requires… Read More
Should the US Government Invest in Intel?