CAST Compression IP Webinar 800x100 (2)

Silvaco Swallows Invarian

Silvaco Swallows Invarian
by admin on 03-20-2015 at 7:00 am

Yesterday, Silvaco announced that it has acquired Invarian Inc. Details of the transaction were not disclosed.

Who is Invarian? They are a recognized leader in block-level to full-chip sign-off analysis for complex, high-performance ICs. Their unique methodology utilizes a parallel architecture and concurrent power-voltage-thermal… Read More


Closure: Kilopass v. Sidense

Closure: Kilopass v. Sidense
by Daniel Nenni on 03-19-2015 at 11:00 pm

The long running legal action between the top two NVM IP companies is now finished after close to five years of lawyering. By the way, I write about this stuff in hopes of limiting the future earning power of lawyers that prey on our R&D budgets. This one is significant because Kilopass was not successful in a patent infringement… Read More


Full Spectrum Analog FastSPICE Useful for RF Designs on Bulk CMOS

Full Spectrum Analog FastSPICE Useful for RF Designs on Bulk CMOS
by Tom Simon on 03-19-2015 at 1:00 pm

It has been about a year since the acquisition of Berkeley Design Automation by Mentor Graphics. Berkeley was doing quite well in the somewhat crowded SPICE simulator market. In many respects they broke new ground for high speed and accurate SPICE simulators. Since the acquisition we know that former Berkeley executives are now… Read More


SystemC Co-Simulation of NoCs and IP Blocks

SystemC Co-Simulation of NoCs and IP Blocks
by Paul McLellan on 03-19-2015 at 7:00 am

Verification in general suffers from a couple of fundamental problems. Availability of models and performance of different levels of representation.

The first problem, availability of models, is that you would like to start verification as soon as possible but all the representations are not ready early enough. Obviously … Read More


TSMC ♥ UMC?

TSMC ♥ UMC?
by Daniel Nenni on 03-18-2015 at 8:00 pm

The relationship between TSMC and UMC is one of the more interesting ones in the fabless semiconductor ecosystem in my opinion. Both are headquartered in Hsinchu Taiwan and it is very hard to visit one company without seeing the other as they have facilities right across the street from each other. They also share humble beginnings… Read More


ARM & Cadence IP Partnership for Faster SoC Design

ARM & Cadence IP Partnership for Faster SoC Design
by Eric Esteve on 03-18-2015 at 9:50 am

IP vendors always try to create differentiation, especially when designing protocol based IP. You can differentiate by building the most performing controller but you will probably miss the expectation of these customers who don’t search for performance but just compliance to a specific standard. Or the vendor may want to design… Read More


SEMI: All This and Breakfast Too

SEMI: All This and Breakfast Too
by Paul McLellan on 03-18-2015 at 7:00 am

Are you interested in any of these?

  • Internet of Things
  • Trends and Forecast for Fabs
  • Inflections Points
  • Semiconductor CAPEX
  • Cost Effective Scaling
  • Prospects for 450mm
  • Future of EUV
  • Mobile Machine Learning
  • Robotics/Drones
  • Cybersecurity
  • Used Equipment Markets
  • World Fab Databases
  • Free breakfast

No? Then I think you got the wrong… Read More


Webinar: Choosing IP for your next IoT Design

Webinar: Choosing IP for your next IoT Design
by Daniel Payne on 03-17-2015 at 8:00 pm

My favorite IoT device is a cycle-computer from CatEyeand it has GPS for tracking my bike routes, and an LCD display that shows me speed, cadence, heart rate and time. After each ride I connect my CatEye device to a USB connector, upload my data to Strava.com, and then see how I’m doing versus other cyclists and my own personal… Read More


Exploring IP You Didn’t Design Yourself

Exploring IP You Didn’t Design Yourself
by Paul McLellan on 03-17-2015 at 7:00 am

Starvision Pro from Concept Engineering is a bit like one of those Leatherman multi-tools, it has a huge number of different functions, some of them fairly specialized but nonetheless incredibly useful. Many of these functions are unique to Starvision Pro, with nothing else like it on the market. Some new videos, produced by EDA… Read More


Mapping Focus and Dose onto BEOL Fabrication Effects

Mapping Focus and Dose onto BEOL Fabrication Effects
by Tom Simon on 03-16-2015 at 7:00 pm

With today’s ArF based lithography using 193nm wavelength light, we are hard up against the limitations imposed by the Raleigh equation. Numerous clever things have been devised to maximize yield and reduce feature size. These include 2 beam lithography, multiple patterning, immersion litho processes to improve NA, thinner… Read More