The tie between rock artists and technology isn’t new. One of the first prominent rockers-turned-entrepreneurs is Tom Scholz of Boston, an engineer who has a couple MIT degrees and several patents to his name. Neil Young is currently out with Pono, attempting to make a higher-resolution audio format based on FLAC encoding to get… Read More
Alphawave Semi Bridges from Theory to Reality in Chiplet-Based AIGenAI, the most talked-about manifestation of AI these…Read More
Design Stage Verification Gives a Boost for IP DesignersThe concept of shift left is getting to…Read More
A Complete Scalable Solution for IP Signoff
In an SoC world driven by IP, where an SoC can have hundreds of IP (sourced not only from 3[SUP]rd[/SUP] party but also from internal business units which can have a lot of legacy) integrated together, it has become essential to have a comprehensive and standard method to verify and signoff the IP. Additionally, these checks must … Read More
GlobalFoundries and IBM
So it’s true. IBM is selling its semiconductor division to GlobalFoundries. Actually, selling is a sort of euphemism for paying them $1.5B to take it off their hands. At least according to Bloomberg. There have been rumors for weeks that IBM wanted to pay $1B to get rid of the division, but GF wanted $2B. Looks like they split… Read More
Semiconductor Startups on Kickstarter!
One of the challenges for the fabless semiconductor ecosystem is raising funds for new ventures. Of the things I do as a consultant, working with entrepreneurs on business and funding plans is by far the most interesting. Raising money is a big challenge since venture capitalists have largely ignored our industry of late. Kickstarter… Read More
Xilinx: Revenue on Target, Profit Above
Xilinx announced their quarterly results a couple of days ago. Technically it is their Q2 2015. Sales were $604M and profitability was significantly higher than expected at $0.62/share. But that is not the most interesting thing about these calls. There is the Xilinx vs Altera story. And then there are tealeaves to be read about… Read More
MIPI Soundwire IP Sounds Innovative
MIPI SoundWire specification will be integrated into mobiles systems, like smartphone or media tablet. In fact some of the well-known chip makers have already decided to integrate MIPI SoundWire into their last application processor release. MIPI SoundWire is also the type of specification which could be used in many other … Read More
Linux and the ARC of the Coherent
Remember that thing called “real-time Linux”? Yeah, nobody else does either. As builds became configurable and clock speeds increased, embedded Linux manifested itself as fast enough for many applications – if a few other SoC details are addressed.
Most obvious for SoCs to run Linux is the need for a fully integrated MMU implementation.… Read More
Recap of the Apple iPad Announcement
I watched the live stream product announcements yesterday from Apple and will give you a quick recap of what I gleaned. First off, Apple live stream requires that you use the Safari browser, so that meant that I couldn’t use Google Chrome, so much for adopting web standards.
Apple Products Talked about
iPhone 6 and 6 Plus
This… Read More
Atmel’s New Microcontrollers and IoT, Wearables
More and more companies, regardless of their vertical, are trying to get closer to their customers and see various aspects of the internet of things (IoT) as the way to do so. For a good example, here is Salesforce Wear Developer Pack which, as they say:..is a collection of open-source starter apps that let you quickly design and build… Read More
TSMC Breaks More Records in Q3 2014!
As previously predicted TSMC is having another record breaking SoC quarter. TSMC is my favorite economic bellwether and from what I can see the semiconductor industry will continue to grow this year and next at a rapid rate thanks to TSMC and the fabless semiconductor ecosystem:
We have set a new record of revenue and profitability… Read More
Intel High NA Adoption