Primarius 2B

Silvaco TCAD Webinar

Silvaco TCAD Webinar
by Paul McLellan on 01-26-2015 at 4:50 pm

TCAD is a somewhat specialized area since not that many people design semiconductor processes compared to the number who design chips. Bit without TCAD there would be no chips. One area where the two domains intersect is that of SEE, where neutrons (mainly) can cause a flop or a memory bit to change. Since we live on a radioactive planet… Read More


30+ Years of Semiconductors – The base matters!

30+ Years of Semiconductors – The base matters!
by Pawan Fangaria on 01-25-2015 at 10:00 am

Although CMOS technology in semiconductors was patented in 1960s, commercial ICs and electronic systems based on CMOS ICs started picking up in 1970s, and the real growth with personal computer (PC) market took place in 1980s. Then Intelmicroprocessors started dominating the semiconductor market with increasing processing… Read More


IBM to Humiliate 20% of Workforce?

IBM to Humiliate 20% of Workforce?
by Daniel Nenni on 01-25-2015 at 7:00 am

There are four big technology companies that I grew up with: Intel, Apple, Microsoft, and IBM. I still follow all four but it is sometimes hard to watch. Last week there was talk of a massive layoff at IBM and I have just confirmed it with my Upstate sources. According to an article in Forbes it will be 25% of the more than 400,000 workforce.… Read More


Industrial Internet “In-Security” – Awaiting a Cyber Pearl Harbor?

Industrial Internet “In-Security” – Awaiting a Cyber Pearl Harbor?
by Charles DiLisio on 01-24-2015 at 7:00 pm

You feel violated when internet intruders (hackers) cause digital harm (theft of social security numbers, credit cards, logins, e-mails or addresses), however, it’s frightening when organized cyber attacks destroy critical physical infrastructure (disrupt water, power or gas). Its annoying having to update passwords … Read More


Measuring Metastability

Measuring Metastability
by Jerry Cox on 01-24-2015 at 7:00 am

Measuring metastability is just 50 years old this year. In 1965 my colleague Tom Chaney took a sampling ‘scope picture of an ECL flip-flop going metastable. S. Lubkin had made mention of the phenomenon over a decade before that, but at that time most engineers were unaware of the phenomenon or did not believe it actually existed. … Read More


How Imagination tested the PowerVR Series6XT

How Imagination tested the PowerVR Series6XT
by Don Dingee on 01-23-2015 at 10:00 pm

We have been hearing for some time about the Synopsys HAPS-70 and how they have co-created the hardware and software architecture for FPGA-based prototyping with their customers. Now, we see details published by Synopsys on how they collaborated with Imagination on the design of the PowerVR Series6XT GPU.

The first thing to come… Read More


Will the Apple A9 Fall Flat?

Will the Apple A9 Fall Flat?
by Robert Maire on 01-23-2015 at 12:00 pm

Several months ago we had suggested that we were concerned that Apple’s A9 processor would wind up being 20nm planar (maybe 14nm planar) rather than the expected 14nm FinFET. As we are now under 9 months from a likely launch time for Apple’s next gen IPhone the timing for getting a 14nm FinFET processor on board the phoneRead More


How the iPhone Ended Nokia’s Reign!

How the iPhone Ended Nokia’s Reign!
by Daniel Nenni on 01-23-2015 at 7:30 am

The origin of ARM’s success in mobile phone space is largely traced to Symbian’s decision to exclusively support the ARM Instruction Set Architecture (ISA). This in turn was the consequence of a mid-1990s decision by Texas Instruments to use ARM in its mobile phone ASICs for Nokia, the driving force behind the inception of the Symbian… Read More


Windows on a TV

Windows on a TV
by Daniel Payne on 01-23-2015 at 12:00 am

This month I upgraded my TV at home with a 40″ LED set from Samsung, Denon AV receiver and Samsung Blu-ray player. Also being a Google fan I bought a Chromecast device.




At CES there were multiple announcements from Intel, and one that caught my eye was the Intel Compute Stick because it reminded me of the Google Chromecast device… Read More


Tracing Insight into Advanced Multicore Systems

Tracing Insight into Advanced Multicore Systems
by Pawan Fangaria on 01-22-2015 at 7:00 am

After knowing about the challenges involved in validating multicore systems and domains of system and application level tracing as explained by Don Dingee in his article “Tracing methods to multicore gladness” which is based on the first part of Mentor Embedded multicore whitepaper series, it’s time to take a deeper insight … Read More