At the recent TSMC OIP symposium, Bill Acito from Cadence and Chin-her Chien from TSMC provided an insightful presentation on their recent collaboration, to support TSMC’s Integrated FanOut (InFO) packaging solution. The chip and package implementation environments remain quite separate. The issues uncovered in bridging… Read More



A Connectivity Verification Idea
A Wirble
In case you hadn’t noticed, I like to write from time to time about EDA product ideas. I assume these are somewhat original, but given the maxim “there’s nothing new under the sun…”, I may well be wrong. In any event, I like to share these ideas if only to demonstrate that innovation in EDA is not stalled because we’ve run out big,… Read More
EUV sees further delays?
Headwinds which will likely continue into 2016…
ASML reported revenues of 1.55B Euros with EPS of 0.75 Euros more or less in line with expectations. Orders were the weak spot, falling to 904M Euros versus the previous Q2 orders of 1.523B Euros. The company guided Q4 revenues to be down about 10% to 1.4B Euros below current flattish… Read More
Why ARM Enabling Easy Access to Customized SOC’s Matters
The introduction of the Arduino heralded the huge growth and interest in MCU based designs by people who could never before easily put together the hardware and software system required for implementation of their ideas. I remember the first time I saw the Arduino in use. I was at a talk on how a system for controlling propane jet solenoids… Read More
Optimizing Quality-of-Service in a Network-on-Chip Architecture
The Linley Group is well-known for their esteemed Microprocessor Report publication, now in its 28th year. Accompanying their repertoire of industry reports, TLG also sponsors regular conferences, highlighting the latest developments in processor architecture and implementation.
One of the highlights of the conference… Read More
Convolutional Deep Neural Network is now a reality with CEVA-XM4
XM4 DSP has been enriched with CEVA Deep Neural Network (CDNN) Software Framework. Some explanation could be useful before jumping into CDNN. The “Deep” of CDNN comes from “Deep Learning”, a family of neural network methods using high number of layers, so a deep network. The most popular deep learning neural network method is the… Read More
Wi-Fi Pioneers: Where are they now?
Wi-Fi is the unsung hero of the mobile revolution. Some people even call it the real Internet. In retrospect, smartphones took off partly because Apple forced mobile operators to seriously consider handsets with Wi-Fi capabilities. Now Wi-Fi is an intrinsic networking component serving smartphones, tablets and notebook computers… Read More
SpyGlass World at Levi Stadium, October 21st
I suppose you might have something better to do next Wednesday but, seriously, it had better be pretty good. I admit I’m biased (I was the Atrenta CTO until very recently) but even given that and mixing metaphors, Atrenta really knocked it out of the park when they got the 49er stadium for their User Group meetings. You don’t have to … Read More
3 Self-Service Semiconductor Design and Manufacturing Wins!
As the semiconductor consolidation continues and thousands of semiconductor professionals update their LinkedIn profiles, the march to create new silicon opportunities is increasing at a rapid pace. It is 1980s deja vu all over again when the fabless business model reenergized the semiconductor industry and brought affordable… Read More
Tensilica 4th generation DSP IP is a VPU
You may not know Tensilica DSP IP core, but you probably use Tensilica DSP powered systems in your day to day life. Every year, over 2 billion DSP cores equip IC in thousands of designs supporting IoT, Mobile Phones, Storage/SSD, Networking, Video, Security, Cameras… and more. Why DSP processing, the foundation of all Tensilica… Read More
Flynn Was Right: How a 2003 Warning Foretold Today’s Architectural Pivot