China has recently announced extremely ambitious plans for becoming more self-sufficient in semiconductors. Today China is about 1/3 of the worldwide IC market but about 90% of that is imported. Think of something like the iPhone assembled in Shenzen with chips from TSMC, Samsung, Hynix, Toshiba/Sandisk , Micron and more (Taiwan,… Read More
Griffin Securities’ Jay Vleeschhouwer on EDA Acquisitions and StartupsJay Vleeschhouwer, Managing Director of Software Research at…Read More
Security Coverage: Assuring Comprehensive Security in Hardware DesignAs hardware systems become increasingly complex and security…Read More
Scaling 3D IC Technologies – Siemens Hosts a Meeting of the Minds at DAC3D IC was a very popular topic at…Read More
Analysis and Exploration of Parasitic EffectsWith advanced semiconductor processes continuing to shrink, the…Read More
Siemens Proposes Unified Static and Formal Verification with AIGiven my SpyGlass background I always keep an…Read More
Is Semiconductor Technology a Strategic Industry?
Dependence on electronics is acute in all fields today. This includes both civilian and military use. Whether the technology used is state of the art or classic in nature, importance is pointed to the necessity of solid state electronic hardware in everyday life. In such an environment the need to ensure the availability of semiconductors… Read More
Intel and Samsung in Barcelona
This week it was Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. Everyone who is anyone in mobile is there. Unfortunately I’m not since Barcelona is one of my favorite cities to visit. Two companies that set high expectations before the show were Samsung and Intel.
Samsung announced the new Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge smartphones on Sunday.… Read More
Blogging for Consultants
Paul McLellan wrote about how he stumbled into blogging and it inspired me to share my story as well. I grew up in Minnesota and attended the U of Minnesota earning a bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering so that I could design computer chips. After interviewing in 1978 with HP, IBM, Intel and Motorola I decided to join… Read More
Intel NOT Inside Sematech?
Rumor that Intel has quit Sematech confirmed by website?
Potential industry impact-
Is this a consolidation by-product?
Do we need a trade group?
Does it benefit Intel?
We have heard from several sources over the last few days that Intel has quit Sematech, the semiconductor industry trade group focused on technology development… Read More
Blogging for Dummies
I am often asked how I became a blogger (or a journalist if you want to make it sound more professional). I think people assume that I planned it in some way but I never did. Life is what happens while you are making other plans. To see how unlikely it is, you need to know a bit of my background.
I have a PhD in computer science so I’m actually… Read More
Three Colorful Bytes from the NXP History
The proposed merger of NXP and Freescale, which creates a bigger semiconductor outfit, also brings forth some fascinating history bytes from the technology heritage that these two spin-offs carry from their respective corporate parents. In 2006, Philips Electronics sold its chip business division Philips Semiconductors… Read More
Synflow and Cx
When hardware designers hear about a new language their heart sinks. We already have Verilog, SystemVerilog and VHDL. And if you go up a level, we have C, C++ and SystemC. Isn’t that enough? However, if you tell a software engineer about a new language they are interested, there are hundreds of programming language and hundreds… Read More
CDN is Live in Silicon Valley!
As big of a fan as I am of Social Media there is still nothing like getting up close and personal when collaborating with the fabless semiconductor ecosystem. After 30+ years in Silicon Valley if there is one thing I have learned it’s that “showing up” is the #1 key to success, absolutely.
Speaking of showing up, each year there are three… Read More
Where a New IP Company Could Invest
Which IP which will give substantial return in next 3 – 5 years and where a company will invest as well as how it will differentiate itself from others, particularly the big ones, are key discussion topics for any start-up entering into semiconductor IP business.
In the last few decades we have seen a tremendous growth of interface… Read More
Musk’s new job as Samsung Fab Manager – Can he disrupt chip making? Intel outside