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AMD Design IP Deal with Virage Logic… Oops… Synopsys

AMD Design IP Deal with Virage Logic… Oops… Synopsys
by Eric Esteve on 09-23-2014 at 9:59 am

Whoever has said that history never repeats itself should read this recent PR from AMD! The news can be summarized in three points:

  • Multi-year agreement gives AMD access to a range of Synopsys design IP including interface, memory compiler, logic library and analog IP for advanced FinFET process nodes
  • Synopsys acquires rights
Read More

The TSMC iPhone 6!

The TSMC iPhone 6!
by Daniel Nenni on 09-23-2014 at 7:00 am

Fortunately Paul McLellan and I missed IDF. Paul was atop Mt. Kilimanjaro and I was in Taiwan signing books. After reviewing the materials and watching the videos we really didn’t miss much in regards to mobile so no regrets. The Apple event would have been fun even though I won’t be buying an iPhone6 or an iWatch and I will tell you why.… Read More


Really Apple? Tanazania Leads US in Mobile Payments

Really Apple? Tanazania Leads US in Mobile Payments
by Paul McLellan on 09-23-2014 at 1:00 am

I was in Tanzania a few weeks ago. One of the conceits that we have in the US is that we lead the world in technology. That is true in many areas but in mobile the US is a laggard. Just look at the fuss made about NFC payments in the new iPhone given that Japan had mobile payments over a decade ago.

Another area where the US is a laggard, or maybe… Read More


Samsung 14nm FinFET Design with Cadence Tools

Samsung 14nm FinFET Design with Cadence Tools
by Daniel Payne on 09-22-2014 at 5:30 pm

The first consumer products with 20nm processing are arriving in 2014 like the 2 billion transistor A8 chip in the iPhone 6, however at the 14nm node there are new designs underway to continue the trend of Moore’s Law. To get a better feel for the challenges of designing with 14nm FinFET technology I watched a 23 minute video … Read More


Expansion at Calypto through Real Value Addition in SoC Design

Expansion at Calypto through Real Value Addition in SoC Design
by Pawan Fangaria on 09-22-2014 at 1:00 pm

When we get the notion of expansion of a company, it always provides a positive picture about something good happening to boost that expansion. There can be several reasons for expansion such as merger & acquisition, formation of joint venture or partnership, large customer orders and so on. However, organic expansion which… Read More


Is Number of Signoff Corners an Issue?

Is Number of Signoff Corners an Issue?
by Daniel Nenni on 09-22-2014 at 12:00 am

Semiconductor companies continue to use the traditional corner-based signoff approach that has been developed more than 40+ years ago and has since remained mainly unchanged as an industry paradigm. Initially it had 2 corners, namely Worst Case (WC) and Best Case (BC) with the maximum and minimum cell delay respectively. Note… Read More


Xilinx UltraScale leads the way on connectivity

Xilinx UltraScale leads the way on connectivity
by Luke Miller on 09-21-2014 at 10:00 am

Even though Xilinx FPGAs seem to keep growing in densities and gobbling up boards into a single part, there is still the need for chip to chip connectivity and of course backplane connectivity. Xilinx 20nm UltraScale, TODAY, can really move 28 gb/s over the back plane. This is something that you cannot do with Altera 20nm, they are… Read More


TCAD to SPICE

TCAD to SPICE
by Paul McLellan on 09-21-2014 at 7:00 am

Power devices have historically been made from silicon (Si), which has reached the limit of electric power loss reduction. With the superior physical and electrical properties of silicon carbide (SiC), we can expect to see a significant expansion in the amount of electric power conversion of electrical equipment as well as reduced… Read More


Intel’s 35% Density Advantage Claim Explored

Intel’s 35% Density Advantage Claim Explored
by Daniel Nenni on 09-20-2014 at 1:00 pm

The previous blog I did on the density difference between Intel 14nm and TSMC 20nm caused quite a stir and many interesting comments which I would like to address. After writing thousands of blogs on a wide variety of topics I have found that playing the devil’s advocate stimulates the most productive conversations and in this case… Read More


Who will be “lucky dog” in 4G LTE basebands?

Who will be “lucky dog” in 4G LTE basebands?
by Don Dingee on 09-19-2014 at 5:00 pm

The official term is “beneficiary rule”, but among colorful racing broadcasters, drivers, and fans it is more commonly referred to as the “lucky dog”: the driver who is down a lap, but gets to advance to the lead lap by virtue of being farthest ahead when a caution flag is raised.

Qualcomm has lapped the entire field when it comes to … Read More