IoT products call for a higher level of system integration than ever before. Companies seeking to go to market now have a much higher bar in terms of size, power, reliability and manufacturability. The first IoT devices evolved from embedded development boards, like the groundbreaking Arduino. These were fine for prototypes … Read More



Accellera and Portable Stimulus
I’ll start with a quick note on DVCon. This seems to be gaining momentum each year. In addition to the events in the US, Europe and India, a DVCon event is now planned for China, kicking off in Shanghai in 2017. At a time when we’re all bemoaning the future of EDA and EDA conferences, DVCon is booming internationally, no doubt reflecting… Read More
Post-making new Things stand out on the IoT
Sales says this next IoT project is going to be huge. Engineering isn’t so sure. Marketing says we should pilot it to find out. If it were just software, it might not be such a problem, but with hardware comes investment tradeoffs. Without guaranteed volumes of millions of units, are ASICs a realistic option to hit aggressive size,… Read More
Carol Burnett and Automotive Safety
American television viewers of a certain age will remember the Carol Burnett Show and its star, Carol Burnett, and her customary ear tug at the end of each show. TV Guide tells us the “ear tug first made famous during the 1967-79 run of CBS’s Carol Burnett Show was a message to her grandmother, a way of saying, “Hello,… Read More
Webinar from CEVA: Machine Type Communication
By 2020, ABI Research predicts that there will be more than 45 billion connected devices worldwide. More than half of these devices will incorporate multiple standards in the same device, such as Wi-Fi, 802.15.4g, GNSS and cellular communications.
This webinar will address the question: How To Design a LTE-Based M2M Asset Tracker… Read More
How China can Lead in the Semiconductor Industry
Since a few years China has been very aggressive in acquiring semiconductor companies around the world. Last year, Chinese government along with PE (Private Equity) and other investors in China announced an ambitious plan under which more than $150 billion were to be invested over next 5 to 10 years in developing semiconductor… Read More
Ajoy – History, Perspectives and Crossing the Chasm
EDAC hosted an event at DVCon this week where Jim Hogan interviewed Ajoy Bose (CEO of Atrenta prior to its acquisition by Synopsys). The nominal purpose was to talk about turning a venture into a valuable enterprise. This was covered but, in Jim’s way, it was really a more wide-ranging and personal interview. This is an abstract of… Read More
IC Design and OpenAccess
EDA vendors have long used proprietary file and database formats to keep their users locked into their specific tool flow and keep any competitors from sharing in the IC design process. Along the way the actual users of EDA tools have often requested and helped to create interoperable flows so that they could mix and match multiple… Read More
Dr. Walden Rhines on the Past Present and Future!
Who can present seventy six slides in sixty minutes, still have time for questions, AND make it interesting? Dr. Walden Rhines that’s who. Here is a link to the presentation but I have to warn you, it is a 100MB PDF file:
Design Verification Challenges: Past, Present, and Future
The DVCon conference was well attended again this year… Read More
My Last Day at Fairchild
Well today is the day. I am officially retired from Fairchild after 36 years and 9 months on the job. I have worked for Fairchild Camera and Instrument, Fairchild a Schlumberger Company, National Semiconductor and Fairchild Semiconductor. It’s been everything I was hoping for and more. By the way, I walked out the front door… Read More
Flynn Was Right: How a 2003 Warning Foretold Today’s Architectural Pivot