800x100 static WP 3

Are iPhones to Die For?

Are iPhones to Die For?
by Daniel Nenni on 07-10-2014 at 3:00 am

First there were car phones and admittedly I waited in line to get one when they went mainstream. It was a Motorola something or other and it came with a curly antenna for the back window. From there I got a Nokia, a flip phone, a BlackBerry, and now iPhones. These life changing devices would not have happened without the fabless semiconductor… Read More


Chip side of the Open Interconnect Consortium

Chip side of the Open Interconnect Consortium
by Don Dingee on 07-09-2014 at 9:00 pm

Maybe it’s my competitive analysis gene, or too many years spent hanging out with consortium types, but I’m always both curious and skeptical when a new consortium arises – especially in a crowded field of interest. The dynamics of who aligns with a new initiative, and how they plan to go to market compared to other entities, prompts… Read More


Mark Adams Keynote at #semiconwest

Mark Adams Keynote at #semiconwest
by Paul McLellan on 07-09-2014 at 12:58 pm

The first surprise of the opening keynote for Semicon West was on the slides that were cycling on the screen as the room filled up. Somehow our book Fabless had managed to be in the rotation.

The opening keynote was by Mark Adams, the President of Micron. He was talking about upcoming big changes in the semiconductor environment, although… Read More


The Internet of Things @ SEMICON West 2014!

The Internet of Things @ SEMICON West 2014!
by Daniel Nenni on 07-09-2014 at 9:00 am

Clearly I’m a fan of IoT in regards to the future of the fabless semiconductor industry. The fabless semiconductor transformation unleashed all sorts of innovation giving us the SoC and the life changing mobile devices SoCs enable. Unfortunately modern SoC design is expensive and raising capital for semiconductor start-ups… Read More


Take a drive on the IoT with V2V

Take a drive on the IoT with V2V
by Bill Boldt on 07-08-2014 at 11:00 pm

What platform has become the most sophisticated and intimate personal electronic environment ever? The car. To paraphrase a famous automotive company’s top executive, car companies are transforming the car into a powerful smartphone that allows drivers to carry around, customize, and interact with their digital world. AutomotiveRead More


Modeling and Analysis of Single Event Effects (SEE)

Modeling and Analysis of Single Event Effects (SEE)
by Daniel Payne on 07-08-2014 at 4:00 pm

Single Event Effects (SEE) are important because we depend upon our consumer, industrial and aerospace products to work reliably. Protons, electrons, neutrons, or alpha particles may perturb the MOS or bipolar device operation in either a destructive or non-destructive fashion. Galactic cosmic rays are one source of these… Read More


IMEC Technology Symposium

IMEC Technology Symposium
by Paul McLellan on 07-08-2014 at 12:52 pm

Yesterday I attended the IMEC Technology Forum at Semicon West. As always with IMEC, they present so much information it is like drinking from a firehose. I’ll say more about the future of process technology in a blog later this week, but this blog is about IMEC itself. It is an amazing success story. Let’s face it, if you were going … Read More


From ARM7 to such a Large CPU cores Port-Folio

From ARM7 to such a Large CPU cores Port-Folio
by Eric Esteve on 07-08-2014 at 3:13 am

I have heard about ARM processor for the very first time in 1990, when I was interviewed by ES2 Design Center manager before being hired to subcontract an ASIC design for ES2. I don’t know why, but I remember very well that he told me about two of the ES2 partners: ARM as a processor IP core provider and TSMC as a Foundry partner if, by chance,… Read More


Intel Custom Foundry Explained!

Intel Custom Foundry Explained!
by Daniel Nenni on 07-07-2014 at 7:00 pm

The exciting news is that Intel landed their first big SoC customer with Panasonic’s System LSI Business Division. These 14nm SoCs will be targeted to audio visual equipment markets. The significance here to me is that Intel not only has a big SoC customer, Intel now has a non-Silicon Valley based foundry customer. It is critical… Read More


S-engine Moves up the Integration of IPs into SoCs

S-engine Moves up the Integration of IPs into SoCs
by Pawan Fangaria on 07-07-2014 at 8:30 am

As the semiconductor design community is seeing higher and higher levels of abstraction with standard IPs and other complex, customized IPs and sub-systems integrated together at the system level, sooner than later we will find SoCs to be just assemblies of numerous IPs selected off-the-self according to the design needs and… Read More