Processor and GPU cores usually get the limelight, driven by the ARM and Imagination machines occupying the center square of most SoC designs. CEVA has quietly been assembling DSP IP in most of the squares around the edge, and may have just reached critical mass for wearables and IoT devices.… Read More
Alphawave Semi Bridges from Theory to Reality in Chiplet-Based AIGenAI, the most talked-about manifestation of AI these…Read More
Design Stage Verification Gives a Boost for IP DesignersThe concept of shift left is getting to…Read More
Clever IoT Devices are Coming!
Paul McLellan and I spent the evening with Samsung at the Bentley Reserve in San Francisco last night. One thing I discussed with them in great detail was IoT devices. Samsung is investing heavily in IoT and the supporting infrastructure. In fact, there is a rumor that Samsung is acquiring home automation company SmartThings for… Read More
Power Modeling and Simulation of System Memory Subsystem
One great benefit of designing at the ESL level is the promise of power savings on the order of 40% to 70% compared to using an RTL approach. Since a typical SoC can contain a hierarchy of memory, this kind of power savings could be a critical factor in meeting PPA goals. To find out how an SoC designer could use such an ESL approach to power… Read More
Atmel Licenses Mali and Security from ARM
Atmel (and ARM) announced yesterday that Atmel has licensed a portfolio of ARM IP for devices that require video, image and display capabilities. This portfolio includes Cortex-A7 (a 32-bit core), Mali-V500 (a video accelerator), Mali-DP500 (a display processor) and TrustZone technology (security technology). These can… Read More
Google Glass Fail!
Not a total fail but I would classify it as a Segway type fail meaning that while society on a whole will shun Google Glass there will be a number of teksters that will keep the technology in circulation. Teksters is a word I just made up and submitted to the Urban Dictionary. Kind of like hipsters, teksters is a subset of counter-culture… Read More
The Two Biggest Misses in Mobile
There are some interesting parallels between Intel and Microsoft. Both of them missed mobile. Actually they didn’t completely miss mobile, both of them had programs from early days. But clearly they both regarded mobile as a much lower priority: the PC was where all the money was and where it would continue to be forever.… Read More
NoCs for system-level power management
Most of the buzz on network-on-chip is around simplifying and scaling interconnect, especially in multicore SoCs where AMBA buses and crossbars run into issues as more and more cores enter a design. Designers may want to explore how NoCs can help with a more power-aware approach.… Read More
Xilinx: Revenue Down, Profit Up, FinFET on Schedule
Xilinx announced their results today and had their conference call this afternoon, which I listened to. For them this is 1Q fiscal 2015 which means you have to be careful since there is a big difference between talking about fiscal quarters and calendar quarters. Xilinx’s conference calls are interesting for a couple of … Read More
The Leading Edge Foundry Landscape
There have been a lot of interesting announcements and presentations lately from the leading edge foundries. Looking at all of this information, a pretty interesting picture begins to emerge.
TSMC
TSMC is far and away the world’s largest foundry. In their 2014-Q2 conference call TSMC outlined their expectations for the balance… Read More
Moderate growth and minor correction in semiconductors
At SEMICON West two weeks ago, Bob Johnson of Gartner presented the outlook for the semiconductor market, semiconductor capital spending, and wafer fab equipment spending. Thanks to Daniel Nenni for providing the link to the SEMI/Gartner Market Symposium presentations at https://sites.google.com/a/semi.org/market-symposium/home/speaker-presentations… Read More
Intel High NA Adoption