Metal fill requirements for inductors are now a fact of life. Fill has long been seen as detrimental to device performance due to parasitic capacitance. The necessity of fill arises from the need to ensure planarization of dielectric layers by using chemical mechanical polishing. Without adequate fill, areas of the chip can suffer… Read More
Silicon Catalyst partners with Arm to launch the Arm Flexible Access for Startups Contest!Winner and Runner-up to receive the contest’s largest…Read More
Synopsys Design IP for Modern SoCs and Multi-Die SystemsSemiconductor intellectual property (IP) plays a critical role…Read More
Enhancing the RISC-V Ecosystem with S2C Prototyping SolutionRISC-V's popularity stems from its open-source framework, enabling…Read More
Arteris Frames Network-On-Chip Topologies in the CarOn the heels of Arm’s 2024 automotive update,…Read More
Broadcom Internet of Things
One of the perks of blogging here is being able to get a press invitation to lots of events, often in interesting locations I never even knew existed. Tonight it was a Broadcom event in SPUR here in San Francisco. The evening was about the Internet of Things (IoT). Everyone knows that IoT is sort of hype, but it is also a real opportunity.… Read More
Do you check your circuit DC stability?
Most analog designers are aware of loops stability. In most cases, stability is understood as AC stability, the goal is ensuring enough phase (gain) margin so as to avoid the loop to enter oscillation. But prior to studying AC stability, DC stability should be questioned. What is that DC stability only few people think of?… Read More
Opting for ARM software scalability
Behind much of the success of ARM architecture is a scalable software model, where in theory the same code runs on the smallest member of the family to the largest. In practice, there are profiles, and a variety of hardware execution units, and resource constraints in low power scenarios that enter the picture. As a result, operating… Read More
Mentor: It’s All About Cars
Mentor’s results came out last week. They were good. Wally opened the call:Thanks. Once again results for Mentor Graphics in the quarter exceeded our guidance. Revenue of $260.2 million and non-GAAP earnings per share of $0.23, were ahead of our guidance of $250 million and $0.15 earnings per share. Strength in bookings… Read More
Secure at any IoT deed
In his classic book “Unsafe at Any Speed”, Ralph Nader assailed the auto industry and their approach to styling and cost efficiency at the expense of safety during the 1960s. He squared up on perceived defects in the Chevrolet Corvair, but extended his view to wider issues such as tire inflation ratings favoring passenger comfort… Read More
The EDA Ice Bucket Challenge Just Got Real!
Raising four children is no easy task, believe me. My beautiful wife and I always felt it was important to foster the charitable side of our children by volunteering at the food bank, cleaning up local waterways, and other activities we could do as a family. To be clear, that is why my family did the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge.
“It is amazing… Read More
Know All About ESD and Save Your Chips & Systems
In this age of electronics, especially with so many different types of human held devices and more upcoming wearable devices, it’s utmost important to protect the massive circuitry inside those tiny parts in the devices from ESD related failures. The protection needs to happen at all stages – cells inside the chips, package… Read More
Kilopass v. Sidense Update!
It looks like Sidense finally has closure on their request for attorney fees. Generally, in the U.S., parties in a lawsuit pay for their respective attorney fees which can be staggering. However, U.S. law allows the courts to shift the payment of the winner’s attorney fees to the losing party for “exceptional” reasons. Based on … Read More
FinFETs for your Next SoC
Planar CMOS processes have been offered for decades now, and all the way down through the 28nm node it has been riding the benefits of Moore’s Law. A few years back we started hearing from Intel about TriGate (aka FinFET) starting at the 22nm node as a way to use a more 3D processing approach for transistors instead of planar CMOS.… Read More
ASML- Soft revenues & Orders – But…China 49% – Memory Improving