CAST Compression IP Webinar 800x100 (2)

A moment of IoT silence before we disrupt

A moment of IoT silence before we disrupt
by Don Dingee on 11-08-2015 at 12:00 pm

As I sat down in the SEMI Arizona Chapter breakfast meeting a few weeks ago, a moment of semiconductor history flew right before my eyes before the IoT sessions started.

We were seated in the cafeteria of Freescale Building 94 on Elliot Road in Tempe, a place I’d been many times before, except this time may have been the last. NXP is consolidating… Read More


What do Rockets and GF Fab 8 Have in Common?

What do Rockets and GF Fab 8 Have in Common?
by Daniel Nenni on 11-08-2015 at 7:00 am

An interesting thing happened during the driving tour of the GlobalFoundries Fab 8 in Malta, NY. We happened by an old structure with quite a bit of history. As it turns out, the “Malta Test Station”, a former US Army fuel and explosives testing facility, was the actual birthplace of the United States’ Space & Missile programs.… Read More


GlobalFoundries Visit – Part 1 – It’s All About Execution

GlobalFoundries Visit – Part 1 – It’s All About Execution
by Scotten Jones on 11-06-2015 at 12:00 pm

Fabless companies and the need for foundries
The success of fabless semiconductor companies is well documented with companies such as Qualcomm, Broadcom, MediaTek, AMD, Avago and others selling semiconductors made using the fabless model (see Fabless: The Transformation of the Semiconductor Industry by Daniel Nenni and … Read More


What Makes Us Indecisive?

What Makes Us Indecisive?
by Sunit Rikhi on 11-06-2015 at 7:00 am

An indecision is actually a very bad decision. It is an implicit decision for the status quo. It is worse than an explicit decision regardless of how bad that decision turns out to be. In my experience, our indecisiveness is caused by various reasons involving trade-offs.… Read More


Moore’s Law Linear Approximation and Mathematical Analysis!

Moore’s Law Linear Approximation and Mathematical Analysis!
by Vaibbhav Taraate on 11-05-2015 at 4:00 pm

Respected Gordon Moore has given the real computing power to the world and Respected Stephen Hawking’s work from past many years has given the reality of physics and mathematics to the universe. We can imagine the shrinking and intelligence in computing due to the real evolution of semiconductor technology. The processRead More


The Revenge of Microprocessor Design: The Return of the Macro

The Revenge of Microprocessor Design: The Return of the Macro
by Bernard Murphy on 11-05-2015 at 12:00 pm

(Two Star Wars™ allusions in one title – eat your heart out George Lucas.) Most of us are comfortable with the idea that you design more or less whatever you want in RTL and let the synthesis tool pick logic gates to implement that functionality. Sure it may need a little guidance here and there but otherwise synthesis is more or less … Read More


China Further Expands Its Influence in Semiconductor Industry

China Further Expands Its Influence in Semiconductor Industry
by Raman Chitkara on 11-05-2015 at 7:00 am

For the fourth consecutive year, China’s semiconductor consumption growth far exceeded worldwide market growth. At the end of 2014, the country had a record 56.6% of the global semiconductor consumption market.

China’s semiconductor consumption grew by 12.6% in 2014, exceeding the worldwide chip market growth of 9.8%. To … Read More


Moore’s Law and Silicon Forest

Moore’s Law and Silicon Forest
by Daniel Payne on 11-04-2015 at 4:00 pm

When I first moved to Oregon in 1978 the largest industry was forestry, but then the endangered Spotted Owl was found and that put an end to many forestry companies and decimated the economy of many rural cities. Strangely enough it turns out that the Spotted Owl was found in great numbers across multiple states, so it never should’ve… Read More


Why Gemini 2.0 is tailored for tomorrow’ SoC designs?

Why Gemini 2.0 is tailored for tomorrow’ SoC designs?
by Eric Esteve on 11-04-2015 at 7:00 am

You probably have seen many times this graphic showing that the number of IP blocks has exploded, going from a few dozens in SoC designed in 65 nm to 120 if not more for last generation SoC targeting 16FF or 10FF. This graphic is very good at synthesizing the raw IP count, but it doesn’t tell you about another strong trend: more agents … Read More