A significant shift is underway in the fabless semiconductor business model. As the application markets have become more diverse (and more cost-sensitive), product requirements have necessitated a new focus on multi-die packaging technology. … Read More
What XiangShan Got Right—And What It Didn’t Dare TryAn Open ISA, a Closed Mindset — Predictive…Read More
The Critical Role of Pre-Silicon Security Verification with Secure-IC’s Laboryzr™ PlatformAs embedded systems and System-on-Chip (SoC) designs grow…Read More
Agentic AI and the EDA Revolution: Why Data Mobility, Security, and Availability Matter More Than EverThe EDA (Electronic Design Automation) and semiconductor industries…Read More
Limits to Deep Reasoning in Vision
If you are a regular reader, you’ll know I like to explore the boundaries of technology. Readers I respect sometimes interpret this as a laughable attempt to oppose the inevitable march of progress, but that is not my purpose. In understanding the limits of a particular technology, it is possible to envision what properties a successor… Read More
AMD Unveils Full Radeon RX 400 Models And Positioning At E3
At E3 2016 in Los Angeles, California Advanced Micro Devices disclosed the numbering and targeted use cases of their full line of Polaris-based GPUs, branded as the “Radeon RX Series” of graphics cards. Advanced Micro Devices had previously disclosed some details about the new Radeon RX series of graphics cards at Computex 2016… Read More
NVIDIA Rounds Out Pascal-Based GeForce Lineup With GTX 1060 And New Software Features
NVIDIA has been working hard to progress forward their new Pascal family of GPUs ever since their announcement at Dreamhack in May 2016 in my hometown, Austin, TX. The announcement included two of NVIDIA’s newest GPUs, the GTX 1080 and GTX 1070, both of which are somewhat available now. I worked with my colleague, Anshel Sag, to review… Read More
E-Class: Saving Lives with Fine Print
Television spots for cars are becoming a little like pharmaceutical ads filled with fine print and warnings about side effects and clarifications. Safety advocates are taking Mercedes to task for its latest TV ads for the 2017 E Class, claiming that the car company is misleading consumers into thinking the car can drive itself.… Read More
Why is AMD Stock Jumping?
One of my favorite pastimes is listening to the quarterly investor calls of the leading semiconductor companies. I can then match up the talking points with the calls I do with Wall Street, the conferences I attend, and the other data points I have collected while working inside the fabless semiconductor ecosystem for more than … Read More
SoC QoS gets help from machine learning
Several companies have attacked the QoS problem in SoC design, and what is emerging from that conversation is the best approach may be several approaches combined in a hybrid QoS solution. At the recent Linley Group Mobile Conference, NetSpeed Systems outlined just such a solution with an unexpected plot twist in synthesis.
The… Read More
Industry Analyst Perspectives On The Apple WWDC 2016 Keynote
I was in-person and live at Apple’s WWDC keynote in San Francisco. The following are my quick takeaways from the event.
Watch and watchOS:
Apple is focusing on exactly what they should be with watchOS, and that’s speed, ease of use and upping the ante in health and fitness. With the first Watch and watchOS, Apple solved many of the problems… Read More
Dragging RTL Creation into the 21st Century
When I was at Atrenta, we always thought it would be great to do as-you-type RTL linting. It’s the natural use model for anyone used to writing text in virtually any modern application (especially on the Web, thanks to Google spell and grammar-checks). You may argue that you create your RTL in Vi or EMACS and you don’t need no stinking… Read More
Why Elon Musk’s crazy plans for Tesla aren’t crazy
Elon Musk recently laid out a “master plan” for where his company, Tesla Motors, is heading. The vision is undoubtedly ambitious: four new kinds of Tesla vehicles, solar initiatives, autonomous driving technologies and a ride-sharing program.… Read More
A Quick Tour Through Prompt Engineering as it Might Apply to Debug