Audio Video Bridging (AVB) is a well-established standard for in-car infotainment, and there is a significant amount of activity for specifying and developing AVB solutions in vehicles. The primary use case for AVB is interconnecting all devices in a vehicle’s infotainment system. That includes the head unit, rear-seat entertainment… Read More



IoT and OTP are Like Peanut Butter and Jelly!
Have you ever had a peanut butter and bacon sandwich? Everything goes better with bacon! Which brings me to one of my favorite sayings: “(insert two complimentary things) go together like peanut butter and jelly”. How about this: “low power and IoT”, “IoT and OTP”, and “Low Power OTP and Sidense go together like peanut butter and … Read More
Why You Really Need Chip-Package Co-analysis
There’s only one software company that I know of that covers four major disciplines: Fluids, Structures, Electronics and Systems. That company is ANSYS and when they acquired Apache Design Automation back in 2011 they filled out their products for electronics design, and more specifically in the area of integrated chip-package… Read More
Strategic Materials
Here on SemiWiki we spend a certain amount of time discussing semiconductor equipment, especially the big sea-change items like EUV and 450mm, where everyone wants to know when (and if) they will happen. But there is another aspect to next generation processes other than equipment and that is materials. When the received wisdom… Read More
Moore’s law observations and the analysis for year 2019.
As semiconductor professionals we all are familiar with Moore’s law. Respected Gordon Moore during year 1965-1975 observed and stated that, number of transistors in dense Integrated Circuit has doubled for approximately two years. In the present scenario, if we consider the complexity of Integrated Circuit and if we… Read More
Last line of defense for IoT security
If I grab 10 technologists and ask what are the most important issues surrounding the Internet of Things today, one of the popular answers will be “security.” If I then ask them what IoT security means, I probably get 10 different answers. Encryption. Transport protocols. Authentication. Keying. Firewalls. Secure boot. Over-the-air… Read More
Synopsys Did 90% of Business From Backlog with A Deal Length of 2.5 Years. Err…What Does That Mean?
Here is Trac Pham, Synopsys CFO, from last weeks earnings call:Greater than 90% of Q3 revenue came from beginning of quarter backlog…the weighted average duration of our renewable customer license commitments was about 2.5 years, and we expect duration for the full year to be about 2.7 years.
What does that mean? Why does… Read More
Secret Sauce of SmartDV and its CEO’s Vision
SmartDV started as a small setup in Bangalore in 2008 and by now is one of the most respectable VIP (Verification IP) companies in the world. Having a portfolio of 83 VIPs in its kitty and growing, it has a large customer base, including the top semiconductor companies around the world. The company has grown significantly and is raring… Read More
GaN Technology — Contributing to Medicine in No Small Way
In past posts, the disruptive nature of gallium nitride (#GaN) semiconductor technology, especially eGaN® FETs, was discussed…now with significantly higher performance at an equivalent cost, the inevitability of GaN displacing the aging power MOSFET is becoming clearer.
This post highlights a specific end-use application… Read More
FD-SOI: GlobalFoundries 22nm Update
As I said yesterday, last week was the GSA Analog/Mixed-Signal working group completely dedicated to FD-SOI. ST went first and had a presentation that was a mixture of an introduction to FD-SOI that I have covered times that are too numerous to mention. Then they did a dive into analog and RF capabilities for FD-SOI that went very … Read More
Flynn Was Right: How a 2003 Warning Foretold Today’s Architectural Pivot