Being from Britain, NI always means Northern Ireland when I see it. After all the official name of my country is the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, giving us the same problem as the United States of America, the full name is a mouthful. So we abbreviate the country to UK and call ourselves British or even Brits.… Read More
AI Booming is Fueling Interface IP 23.5% YoY GrowthAI explosion is clearly driving semi-industry since 2020.…Read More
Revolutionizing Simulation Turnaround: How Siemens’ SmartCompile Transforms SoC VerificationIn the race to deliver ever-larger SoCs under…Read More
Arteris Simplifies Design Reuse with Magillem PackagingMany know Arteris as the “network-on-chip”, or NoC,…Read More
My Experience with the Ultra Thin 2015 MacBook
Before we left for our 5 week trip to Europe I decided that I would need a real laptop computer on the road. I knew it would be a near necessity for booking hotels and making train reservations. Also, I would need to write emails and maybe even pay some online bills. I already have an iPad but really wanted to be able to run all my applications… Read More
A Complete Simulation Platform for Mobile Systems
If we take an insight into the semiconductor industry, we can easily find that mobile systems are the main drivers of this industry. The Smartphone business has remained at the top since a good number of years. Although the Smartphone sales growth has started showing a sign of stagnation, it is still a main contributor with a solid… Read More
A Paradigm Shift in Microelectronic System Design
A Paradigm Shift
The word “paradigm” is defined in the dictionary as “a framework containing the basic assumptions, ways of thinking, and methodology that are commonly accepted by members of a scientific community”. In his influential book “The Structure of Scientific Revolutions” published in 1962, Thomas Kuhn uses the term… Read More
Four Things a New Semiconductor Technology Must Have to be Disruptive
This post discusses attributes of gallium nitride (#GaN) that make it a disruptive technology and identifies the four factors required for GaN technology to displace silicon as the technology of choice.
Displacing the Silicon with GaN
38 years ago, when I first entered the semiconductor business as a freshly minted Stanford … Read More
Mentor 2Q Results
So it was Mentor’s turn yesterday after Synopsys on Wednesday. And yes, it really is the end of their second quarter. They produced some very good results. As Wally opened:The second quarter of fiscal 2016 was one of record for Q2. We substantially exceed our own expectations was revenue of $281.1 million and non-GAAP earnings… Read More
Older Nodes Get New Life With Ultra Low Power Variants for IoT
Ever since I can remember, and I’ve been in EDA since the early 80’s, new process development has largely focused on the latest nodes. Trailing nodes were quickly put into support mode. New nodes benefited the most from static and dynamic voltage reduction efforts, as well as improvements in flows and performance. Only a small number… Read More
Synopsys Q3 Results
Synopsys announced their quarterly results this afternoon. It is the end of their Q3 (yes, they are not on the regular calendar year. Neither, for that matter, is Mentor who announce tomorrow). On the earnings call Aart started off:Good afternoon. I’m happy to report that our third quarter results were very strong, as we achieved… Read More
My Tryst with Semiconductors and EDA
Yes, today I realize it feels like a tryst with semiconductors. In actual meaning; it wasn’t a love affair with semiconductors, but I must say the greatest thing it taught me about how it approaches towards perfection. And that became the guiding principle in my life; how can I do something better. Of course nothing is perfect in life… Read More
Seeing Firsthand How the Internet has Changed Traveling
We hear a lot of talk about the internet improving our lives, but most of the time this translates into time spent on FaceBook, shopping on Amazon or other distractions. However, on our just completed trip to Europe I discovered how mobile internet connectivity can transform the experience of traveling.
At home when I drive places… Read More
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