40nm was a big node while I was Director of Foundries at the IP company Virage Logic which was later acquired by Synopsys. 40nm was big because the top fabless companies multi-sourced designs from one foundry to another with relative ease to get the best wafer prices. It was also the node where some of the big IDMs went fab-lite moving… Read More
Coventor Brings More Accuracy & Performance into Design of MEMS Devices
Although MEMS devices in various forms are now found in most electronic devices, predominantly in mobile, automotive, aerospace and many other applications, their major revolution, I believe, is yet to happen. We are seeing rapid innovation in MEMS reflected by their improvements in precision, performance, size reduction,… Read More
Fantasy Tech-Ball and the Intel Rumor Wire
Reading Intel analysis lately has been a lot like reading fantasy baseball analysis. Intel should buy Altera. Intel should waive Atom. Intel should fab for Apple. All of those have a near-zero probability of happening IMHO, and yet pundits continue to pitch their version of alternate reality, dealing away product lines and strategies… Read More
An Approach to Clock Domain Crossing for SoC Designs
Blogger Pawan Fangaria wrote about Clock Domain Crossing(CDC) a few weeks ago, and so I followed up tonight and watched a webinarabout CDC presented by Ravindra Anejaof Atrenta. An RTL design engineer would ultimately want a CDC verification tool that offers:
- Fast throughput and thoroughness
- Ability to debug and fix the source
Solar Leases, How to Not Get Gouged by PG&E
This post will be of primary interest to California residents.
If you haven’t looked closely at your PG&E bill, this may ruin your day. If you live in a house larger than a cracker box, and actually use your lights and air conditioning, the rates you pay are exorbitant. If you live in WA you’ll be paying .06-.08 per … Read More
July 4th Fireworks
It was July 4th yesterday. Fireworks. I didn’t go down to the waterfront to see them in San Francisco this year, I was in a “place” (that might possibly have served beer) having fun. But it reminded me of this a couple of years ago. On July 4th 2012 the San Diego fireworks display, one of the biggest in the world, detonated… Read More
Mentor Graphics @ SEMICON West 2014
Mentor is again the most represented EDA company at SEMICON West this year. I strongly advise Cadence and Synopsys to get more involved because EDA may be where electronics begins but semiconductor manufacturing makes all of our hard work come true, absolutely. Paul McLellan, Beth Martin, and I will be blogging live, I hope to see… Read More
GlobalFoundries Goes to Semicon West
Next week it is Semicon West, the big equipment vendor tradeshow. I love to go since EDA and semiconductor and all the stuff we are interested in here at Semiwiki are driven by equipment capabilities, especially lithography. The highest viewed blogs I write tend to be ones on technologies that are just a bit out beyond the stuff people… Read More
It’s Always Good If the Customer Is Arguing
I’ve never been in sales. Never “carried a bag”. But I have run sales forces and I have spent a lot of time in marketing, guiding sales forces. Well, herding cats comes to mind, but cats don’t have commission plans. Engineers say sales people are emotional, and ego-driven, but change their commission plans… Read More
Intel is Speaking @ SEMICON West 2014!
The SEMICON West website has a nice “speakers” option where you can search by company and see who is talking about what. I’m always interested in what Intel has to say (they are still the leading semiconductor company) so here is the line-up for next week:
Intel Sanchali Bhattacharjee Subcomponent Supply Chain for 10nm and Beyond… Read More
Real men have fabs!