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DesignCon 2014 AMS Panel Report

DesignCon 2014 AMS Panel Report
by Daniel Nenni on 02-05-2014 at 10:15 am

DesignCon 2014 was very crowded! I have not seen the attendance numbers but as the first conference of the New Year it was very encouraging. The strength of the fabless semiconductor ecosystem is collaboration and face-to-face interactions are the most valuable, absolutely.

The session I moderated was on Mixed Signal Design … Read More


iDRM for Complex Layout Searches and IP Protection!

iDRM for Complex Layout Searches and IP Protection!
by Daniel Nenni on 02-05-2014 at 8:00 am

iDRM (integrated design rule manager) from Sage-DA is the world’s first and only design rule compiler. As such it is used to develop and capture design rules graphically, and can be used by non-programmers to quickly capture very complex and shape dependent design rules and immediately generate a check for them. The tool… Read More


CMOS Biosensor Breakthrough Enables Portable Diagnostics Solution

CMOS Biosensor Breakthrough Enables Portable Diagnostics Solution
by Daniel Nenni on 02-04-2014 at 8:30 am

The panel I moderated at DesignCon last week was both entertaining and enlightining. One of the panelists, Zhimin Ding, is the CEO of an emerging fabless semiconductor company and here is their story:

In the past 5 to 10 years we have seen vast advancement in medical diagnostics technology. Doctors can now use DNA or anti-body analysis… Read More


The Great Wall of TSMC

The Great Wall of TSMC
by Paul McLellan on 02-03-2014 at 5:27 pm

TSMC doesn’t just sell wafers, it sells trust. It’s the Colgate Ring of Confidence for fabless customers. This focus on trust started at the very beginning when Morris Chang founded TSMC over 25 years ago, and still today trust remains an essential part of their business.

When TSMC started, the big thing it brought … Read More


Dual Advantage of Intelligent Power Integrity Analysis

Dual Advantage of Intelligent Power Integrity Analysis
by Pawan Fangaria on 02-03-2014 at 9:30 am

Often it is considered safer to be pessimistic in estimating IR-drop to maintain power integrity of semiconductor designs; however that leads to the use of extra buffering and routing resources which may not be necessary. In modern high speed, high density SoCs having multiple blocks, memories, analog IPs with different functionalities… Read More


Jasper Goes to DVCon

Jasper Goes to DVCon
by Paul McLellan on 02-02-2014 at 6:00 pm

As usual, since they are firmly in the verification space, Jasper will have a number of things going on at DVCon 2014 which is March 3-6th at the Doubletree in San Jose. In the exhibition hall they are at booth #402.

Jasper will be happy to talk to you about anything, I’m sure, but the focus this year is on the JasperGold Security… Read More


Who needs DDR4 PHY running at 2667 Mbps?

Who needs DDR4 PHY running at 2667 Mbps?
by Eric Esteve on 02-02-2014 at 11:15 am

As of today, DDR4 are targeting server, networking and consumer applications, and it will take another year before we use DDR4 equipped PC at home. In fact, a majority of consumers will rather buy a smartphone or tablet than a PC, most of these devices coming with PLDDR2 and only a few high-end tablets are equipped with LPDDR3 memory.… Read More


SemiWiki Job Forum

SemiWiki Job Forum
by Rich Goldstein on 02-02-2014 at 11:05 am


As Dan has mentioned, SemiWiki has added a Job Forum in an effort to help fit qualified people to jobs around the fabless semiconductor ecosystem. A quick survey of companies working with SemiWiki revealed over 1,000 job openings planned for 2014 and finding the right people for those positions is something we can help with.

Dan … Read More


PreEDAC Mixer

PreEDAC Mixer
by Paul McLellan on 02-02-2014 at 11:00 am

Get together with your fellow industry peers and insiders at the monthly EDAC Mixer, to the benefit of local charities. You don’t need to donate anything, you just show up and pay for your own drinks. A portion of the proceeds will go to local charities, this month to the Mountain View Educational Foundation (MVEF), a volunteer… Read More


Grid Vision 2050 – Unified & Open Across The Globe

Grid Vision 2050 – Unified & Open Across The Globe
by Pawan Fangaria on 02-02-2014 at 10:30 am

Whenever there is good momentum in a particular technology, IEEEtakes major initiative to standardize the procedures, formats, methods, measurements etc. involved in the technology to proliferate it for the advantage of wider community. And that becomes successful by active participation and collaboration of both producers… Read More