There have always been novel technologies vying to compete with conventional design practices. It is hit or miss on the success of these ideas. In the 90’s I recall speaking to someone who was convinced that they could effectively build computers based on multilevel logic. This, as we know did not pan out. But there have been many … Read More



More than just mobile phones for Mali
ARM TechCon 2015 was another tour de force for ARM and its ecosystem. Besides some of the developments in mobile, IoT, and security (more coming soon in the Epilogue of “Mobile Unleashed”), there were two topics that I found very educational and will cover in blogs this week. One was how the Mali family is powering more than just mobile… Read More
A (R)evolution in Hardware-based Simulation Acceleration
The most exciting products in our industry are those that are both evolutionary and revolutionary. Cadence has just announced an update to their hardware simulation acceleration platform – Palladium Z1 – which continues the evolution of the unique capabilities of processor-based acceleration, plus a revolutionary approach… Read More
Strengthening That Serving ARM
Everyone is aware of ARM’s dominance in mobile devices and their likely dominance in IoT, but what about servers? ARM has been making a play for this area but conventional wisdom is that fortress Intel will protect its server market at all costs. You’ll hear that servers are not so much about compute power, they’re more about I/O and… Read More
ARM Announces Cortex-A35, mbed OS 3.0 at ARM TechCon 2015
Mike Muller, Chief Technology Officer of ARM, has announced the availability of Cortex-A35 processor core for low- to mid-range smartphones at the opening keynote of ARM TechCon on November 10, 2015 in Santa Clara, California. According to Muller, there are going to be 2.8 billion smartphones shipped this year, and more than … Read More
The Reason ARM Will Win IoT!
After spending the week in Silicon Valley at ARM TechCon and related meetings, there was one common thread amongst the presentations and conversations and that was security. No matter what the topic was, mobile, consumer or industrial IoT, wearables, automotive, etc… security always came up. The question I had was how will companies… Read More
When Talking About IoT, Don’t Forget Memory
Memory is a big enough topic that it has its own conference, Memcon, which recently took place in October. While I was there covering the event for SemiWiki.com I went to the TSMC talk on memory technologies for the IoT market. Tom Quan, Director of the Open Innovation Platform (OIP) at TSMC was giving the talk. IoT definitely has special… Read More
A Novel Microprocessor Fighting Dark Silicon, Energy Efficiency, Code density and Silicon area
Processor cores used in computers and smartphones have become impaired by their own complexity and can’t fully utilize future CMOS generations for increasing their efficiency. Due to the continued increase of density and speed of transistors, these big cores produce too much heat per mm[SUP]2[/SUP] if trying to follow Moore’s… Read More
Merger Mania: The Future of the Semiconductor Industry
In a semiconductor industry which appears maturing, we are also seeing the technologies unravelling newer transistor structures, memories, processors, and newer ways of designing ICs and electronic systems. The present decade appears to be at the cusp of a new transformation in the semiconductor industry. Amid a slew of mergers… Read More
IP-SoC Rebound in 2015 !
Going to IP-SoC every year since 2006, I have enjoyed the conference as it’s the only one 100% IP focused and a very good opportunity to network within this rather small ecosystem of IP vendors… but I must admit that, since 2012, the attendance tend to be lower than before. Because of the well-known “chicken & egg” theorem, low … Read More
TSMC N3 Process Technology Wiki