If you didn’t watch the Apple event from the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium this morning, you didn’t miss a whole lot. The only truly different thing announced was the new remote control for the new Apple TV. Everything else was pretty much what you might expect (bigger screen, faster). The whole show seemed remarkably… Read More
New Cooling Strategies for Future ComputingPower densities on chips increased from 50-100 W/cm2…Read More
DAC News – proteanTecs Unlocks AI Hardware Growth with Runtime MonitoringAs AI models grow exponentially, the infrastructure supporting…Read More
Sophisticated soundscapes usher in cache-coherent multicore DSPDigital audio processing is evolving into an art…Read More
A Quick Look at Agentic/Generative AI in Software EngineeringAgentic methods are hot right now since single…Read More
A Brief History of Apple Mobile and SoCs
The big Apple iProduct announcement was today so I thought it would be a good time to premier a draft of the Apple chapter in our upcoming book. Try as I might I was unable to get one of the 7,000 tickets to the live event (it was like getting a Willy Wonka golden ticket!) so I live streamed it from my iPhone like millions of other people. It… Read More
On The Beauty Of Turkey Vultures
Now and again I like to switch from technical topics and write about something good for the soul. I’m involved with a wildlife rescue organization; we take orphaned and injured birds (generally found by members of the public), nurse them back to health and release them back into the wild. We have permits all the way up to the federal… Read More
Explore Your Interconnect the ICScape Way
One of the surprises at DAC for ICScape was to be listed on Gary Smith’s list of companies to see. Surprised, since ICScape had never presented their products to him. They were listed under design debug. They don’t have a single product that really falls under that description, but rather a family of tools under the ICExplorer… Read More
Breakthrough Battery Life for Mobile Devices
Battery life is a never-ending battle for me with all of my mobile devices: Laptop, Tablet, Smart phone, bike computer, Kindle Reader, Bluetooth headset, etc. It seems like I’m constantly having to charge up my battery at the most inconvenient times. When I think about the history of batteries for mobile devices I can recall… Read More
Congratulations Dr. Walden C. Rhines!
A funny thing happened at the Design Automation Conference last June in San Francisco. I was browsing the Kaufman award winner mug shots in the EDAC booth and noticed that Wally Rhines was NOT a winner. You can see them HERE. Immediately in disbelief I said to myself: Self, how can this be? Joe Costello, Aart de Geus, and some other guys… Read More
How MunEDA Helps Solve the Difficulties of AMS/RF IP Reuse
Reusing design IP is crucial for competitiveness. The need for reuse occurs with new designs on the same process node as the original design, new designs at the same node but using a different PDK or foundry, or designs on a different process node – usually smaller. However, achieving effective IP reuse has always been a challenge.… Read More
"Night Gathers, and Now My Watch Begins"
What is going on in the watch world? And I don’t mean Game of Thrones‘ nights watch.
Lots, actually. Whether it will amount to a lot remains to be seen. I still think the usefulness versus the price isn’t there yet. Apple has sold 3.5M iWatches (or something close) which for anyone else would count as a runaway success… Read More
M&A Frenzy in the Chip Industry, the Growth of GaN, and Why It Matters
If expanding industries typically indicate vibrancy, a race to acquire and consolidate is generally reflective of the opposite – a period of slowed growth in mature, once high-flying categories. And while many industries experience a period of stardom, followed by a sharp and steady decline, we should be extremely worried when… Read More
Semiconductor Usage Revolves Around Asia
I just read Daniel Nenni’s blog titled “Is Silicon Valley Gridlock a Good Sign for Semiconductors?” Dan, there is no definitive answer to this, I mean in terms of semiconductors. Let me call it Semiconductor Gridlock in Silicon Valley. Yes it’s good because Silicon Valley promotes research, brings up innovative technology and… Read More
Memory Innovation at the Edge: Power Efficiency Meets Green Manufacturing