I did not know Dr. Sanjay Jha prior to this meeting but I certainly knew of him from his time at Qualcomm. It seemed a bit odd for me to fly to Dresden to meet a man that is based here in Silicon Valley but that made the meeting all that more interesting. Especially after finding out the German Chancellor Angela Merkel would also be visiting… Read More
WEBINAR: Edge AI Optimization: How to Design Future-Proof Architectures for Next-Gen Intelligent DevicesEdge AI is rapidly transforming how intelligent solutions…Read More
WEBINAR Unpacking System Performance: Supercharge Your Systems with Lossless Compression IPsIn today's data-driven systems—from cloud storage and AI…Read More
ChipAgents Tackles Debug. This is ImportantInnovation is never ending in verification, for performance,…Read More
Siemens EDA Unveils Groundbreaking Tools to Simplify 3D IC Design and AnalysisIn a major announcement at the 2025 Design…Read More
CEO Interview with Faraj Aalaei of CognichipFaraj Aalaei is a successful visionary entrepreneur with…Read More
Device Noise Analysis, What Not to Do for AMS IC Designs
AMS IC designers have a lot to think about when crafting transistor-level designs to meet specifications and schedules, so the most-used tool in their kit is the trusted SPICE or FastSPICE circuit simulator to help analyze timing, power, sensitivity and even device noise. I just did a Google search for “device noise analysis… Read More
FD-SOI: a Gentle Introduction
Over the last couple of weeks, FD-SOI has been in the news with GlobalFoundries announcement of a 22nm FD-SOI process that will run in the Dresden Fab. Also, earlier in the week I talked to Thomas Skotnicki about the saga (and it is a saga) of how FD-SOI got from his PhD thesis to volume manufacturing and global deployment. But there … Read More
Intel to Skip 10nm to Stay Ahead of TSMC and Samsung?
Quarterly earning calls are a great source of information but they can also be a source of confusion and generally it is an unhealthy combination of the two. On one hand these earning calls are to appease the financial community. On the other hand, in my opinion, these calls are also used to generate fear, uncertainty, and doubt amongst… Read More
Thomas Skotnicki: FD-SOI 26 Years in the Making
It seems to be FD-SOI week yet again. I talked to Thomas Skotnicki this morning. He is the father of thin-box FD-SOI and its birth is an interesting story. The story began 26 years ago (so not quite as far back as the photo!).
Thomas is of Polish origins (he is actually Tomeczek) and grew up in Warsaw where he earned his PhD. In 1983 in Canterbury,… Read More
Taking prototyping beyond prototypes
Everyone has heard the expression, “Half the job is having the right tool.” In the case of FPGA-based prototyping, however, the right tool for the job is only the beginning. What teams really need to think through is what exactly should be done with an FPGA-based prototyping tool?
The obvious answer is prototyping an SoC, pre-silicon.… Read More
Synopsys Buys Bluetooth IP
There is obviously a broad spectrum of semiconductor IP but broadly speaking it seems to fall into three buckets:
- foundation IP: standard cells, memories
- microprocessors and associated peripherals
- interface IP
Foundation IP is where it all started. When I was at Compass Design Automation in the 1990s that was pretty much what… Read More
GPS Chronicle: The Beginning of the Commercial Era
Although primarily developed for military operations, this cutting-edge satellite technology was eventually allowed for civilian applications. The first interagency testing of GPS receivers was conducted in California in 1984. By July 1995, using Navstar constellation, GPS was fully operational across the country. Automotive… Read More
SEMICON West 2015 Recap – Day 1 – Softening Markets, Sub 14nm and 3D NAND
Tuesday morning press briefing
The show started for me Tuesday morning with the SEMI press briefing. SEMI said there are 1,200 booths this year, 629 exhibiting companies and over 180 hours of programming. They also said pre-registration was up from last year and they expect 26,000 visitors.
Dan Tracy then gave an update on the markets.… Read More
See What’s Pushing up IoT Revenues
The whole world’s eyes are at Internet of Things (IoT) market in various segments. The overall semiconductor ecosystem, starting from best suited technology nodes for IoT up to the final end products including sensors, microcontrollers, wireless chipsets, analog ICs, and so on are geared to avail the best opportunities from… Read More
Facing the Quantum Nature of EUV Lithography