Sure, design engineers can get more attention than verification engineers, but the greater number of verification engineers on SoC projects means that the verification task is a bigger bottleneck in a schedule than pure design work. A recent survey conducted at Cadence shows how verification effort can be divided into several,… Read More



The 2015 DAC Designer and IP Track
What an exciting year for DAC with record submissions in nearly every category. Most impressive is the increase in Designer and IP Track submissions, content that is helping to continue to evolve and improve the show. If you haven’t already registered, why not do so now?
A brief bit of background about the conference: DAC’s roots… Read More
Four Reasons Why Atmel is Ready to Ride the IoT Wave
In 2014, a Goldman Sachs’ report took many people by surprise when it picked Atmel Corp. as the company best positioned to take advantage of the rising Internet of Things (IoT) tsunami. At the same time, the report omitted tech industry giants like Apple and Google from the list of companies that could make a significant impact… Read More
A Vision for FPGA Prototyping Realized
FPGA prototyping is beginning its move to the forefront of design and verification. More and more companies are turning to this technology not only for in-circuit testing and earlier software development but also for refining, validating, and implementing chip architecture. The increases in design size and complexity as well… Read More
Semiwiki Blogger at DAC: MIPI Beyond Mobile, Myth or Reality?
Some of the various MIPI specifications are now massively used in mobile (smartphone or tablet), especially the Multimedia related specs like Camera Serial Interface (CSI-2), Display Serial Interface (DSI) or SoundWire (even if the spec has been released in December 2014, the adoption rate is very sharp, no doubt that it will… Read More
Heterogeneous Processing: Power Reduction and Performance Advances
Implementation of Heterogeneous processors has shown demonstrated reduction in power consumption and improved performance in mobile processors like ARM_big.LITTLE technology, where low power and relatively slower cores are coupled with the more powerful ARM cores. According to ARM Holdings, it can save 75% of CPU energy… Read More
Growing Innovation in Modern PCB Design Tools
In last 30+ years, the electronic design industry has seen rapid changes more than any other industry. The change has taken place in the whole electronic ecosystem including semiconductor technology, transistor design, IC / SoC design, PCB, and system design. Today, a PCB can be very complex connecting several heterogeneous… Read More
GlobalFoundries: 14 in 15 in 8
How is that for a cryptic title? It is GlobalFoundries’ rallying cry. Their big focus is to bring up 14nm during 2015 in fab 8 in Malta NY.
Last week I chatted to Shubhankar Basu. He is the senior product line manager for leading edge technologies. Not surprisingly, that means he is currently leading the 14nm FinFET business. He told… Read More
2015 Semiconductor Capex led by Memory & Foundry
Semiconductor industry capital expenditures (capex) in 2015 are expected to be $69 billion in 2015, up 6% from $65 billion in 2014 according to IC Insights. We at Semiconductor Intelligence have compiled 2015 capex outlook by company. The major memory companies account for 38% of 2015 capex and the major foundries account for … Read More
Managing Design Flows in RF Modules
The semiconductor industry is expected to grow at a reasonable pace in 2015 and beyond, with the biggest market being compute applications followed by wireless and consumer applications. The highest growth, however, is expected to be in application-specific products for devices such as smartphones, wearables, memories, … Read More
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