We know that the best technology or product, even if it exhibits best in class and unmatched features, is almost of no use if lacking an ecosystem. If you think about a processor core, you will expect to find compatible communication bus and memories (inside the SoC) and operating system, compiler, debugger, etc. When dealing with… Read More
Synopsys Q4 Earnings
Synopsys announced their earnings a couple of days ago. This is actually also the end of their fiscal year. They had quarterly earnings of $539M meaning that they did just over $2B for the year. Their guidance for fiscal 2015 is revenue between $2.185B to $2.225B. They said that about 80% of that revenue is already in backlog.
But it… Read More
Variation at IEDM
IEDM (technically the International Electron Devices Meeting although I’ve never heard anyone use the full name) is in a couple of weeks time, in San Francisco. It is December 15-17th at the Hilton Union Square (which is not actually at Union Square but nearby at 333 O’Farrell Street).
For the last few years on the Tuesday… Read More
Intel is NOT Quitting Mobile!
Judging from the presentation Hermann Eul did at NASDAQ this week Intel is still in mobile. This presentation was probably inked before Intel Mobile was folded into the PC Group however. The first clue is Hermann’s title was listed as “General Manager and Vice President, Mobile Communications Group” which he is no longer. Even … Read More
IoT Financial Outlook
As exciting as the Internet of Things (IoT) is, the question of how and which companies stand to make money in this market remains. From previous waves of internet markets we have seen surprising wins and epic loses. How is the IoT market shaping up? And what are the real business drivers? According to a Silicon Valley Bank analysis… Read More
No IoT No Justice!
It looks like even President Obama is on the IoT bandwagon now with his $263M in matching funds for state and local police body cameras and training. It is a shame that it took a tragic event to spur this type of Government investment in semiconductor technology but I appreciate it just the same.
As I have mentioned before, when I read… Read More
Getting up close and personal with symmetric session key exchange
In today’s world, the three pillars of security are confidentiality, integrity (of the data), and authentication (i.e. “C.I.A.”). Fortunately, Atmel CryptoAuthentication crypto engines with secure key storage can be used in systems to provide all three of these.
Focusing on the confidentiality pillar, in a symmetric system… Read More
HLS – Major Improvement through Generations
I am a believer of continuous improvement in anything we do; it’s pleasant to see rapid innovation in technology these days, especially in semiconductor space – technology, design, tools, methodologies… Imagine a 100K gates up to 1M gates design running at a few hundred MHz frequency and at technology node in the range of .18 to … Read More
Design Rule Checking (DRC) Meets New Challenges
The traditional batch-oriented DRC process run as a final check to ensure compliance with foundry yield goals is quickly moving toward a concurrent DRC process performed early and often throughout design, especially at the 28 nm and smaller process nodes. What are the technology factors causing this change?
- Increasing number
Fitness Watch Anyone?
I’m an exercise junkie. I’m also not a spring chicken so I like having the time on my wrist. I’ve been anxiously awaiting an iWatch to go with my iPhone 6. As patience is not a virtue of mine, and the iWatch is rumored to be expensive ($400-500). I decided to try a fitness watch.
This is a crowded area that includes activity… Read More
Application-Specific Lithography: Sense Amplifier and Sub-Wordline Driver Metal Patterning in DRAM