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64-bit for the masses with Cortex-A35

64-bit for the masses with Cortex-A35
by Don Dingee on 11-10-2015 at 12:00 pm

It has been four years since the announcement of the ARMv8 instruction set, three years since the launch of the ARM Cortex-A57 and Cortex-A53 cores, and two years since the Apple A7 with its “Cyclone” core blew away any misunderstanding of 64-bit as being just for servers.

There is, however, still this idea that 64-bit is only for … Read More


Verification with Tcl for what? – part 2

Verification with Tcl for what? – part 2
by Anatoly Myshkin on 11-10-2015 at 7:00 am

In Orion Bytes we use Tcl both for the internal research, product and different verification services. We use also SystemVerilog UVM and Python based Cocotb for different approaches. I think it’s no need to deep into the SystemVerilog and UVM principles here – today’s main verification fashion is well described through… Read More


Real Men Use ASIC

Real Men Use ASIC
by Bernard Murphy on 11-09-2015 at 4:00 pm

As we watch the gravitational collapse of the semiconductor industry, it becomes increasingly obvious that the tech zeitgeist, with investment in close lockstep, is squarely centered on complete solutions, not enabling technologies. That this seems unfair (they couldn’t do it without us, and what we do is really, really hard)… Read More


Automobiles and the DMCA

Automobiles and the DMCA
by Chan Lieu on 11-09-2015 at 12:00 pm

When you drive a car off the dealer’s lot, you own the whole vehicle, right? For decades, car owners have popped the hood and crawled under the car to do their own maintenance; and for those mechanically inclined, even make modifications to improve performance or handling. However, in an era where a car is increasingly controlled… Read More


Forget about ThunderBolt, USB Type C is here!

Forget about ThunderBolt, USB Type C is here!
by Eric Esteve on 11-09-2015 at 7:00 am

At the early days of Semiwiki (March 2011), I wrote about ThunderBolt, predicting low market adoption of the protocol, for various reasons. One of these reasons was the cost associated with ThunderBolt integration by the OEM. Even if the protocol (associating PCI Express and DisplayPort) was offering better data bandwidth than… Read More


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