Way back when SpringSoft was still SpringSoft and not Synopsys they launched Verdi Interoperability Apps (VIA) and an exchange for users to share them open-source style. I wrote about it back in 2011 when it was announced. Today, Synopsys announced the first developer forum for VIA. It will be held at SNUG on Wednesday, March 26,… Read More
Wanna Build a Bitcoin Miner: GlobalFoundries Will Manufacture it For You
You may know a bit about Bitcoin, the digital currency. One part of the system is “mining” new bitcoins, analogous to mining new gold when we were on the gold standard, creating “money” out of thin air but at a cost of doing the actual mining.
Here is an interesting aside. When I lived in France the father of… Read More
If requirements ask for it, it had better be there
Engineers are known for their attention to detail and precision in thinking, but sometimes still struggle during compliance audits. This is especially true the longer a list of requirements becomes, especially unstructured lists kept in spreadsheets and on Post-It notes.
It gets even more complicated, because in defense circles… Read More
A Brief History of Qualcomm
Qualcomm is the largest fabless semiconductor company in the world. If you have a smarphone there is a good chance you have a Qualcomm chip in your pocket. It is headquartered in San Diego with offices pretty much everywhere.
Qualcomm’s roots are in Linkabit, which was founded by Irwin Jacobs and Andrew Viterbi. They, along with … Read More
High Quality PHY IPs Require Careful Management of Design Data and Processes
In last few years IP design has grown significantly compared to the rest of the semiconductor industry. There are newer IP start-ups opening across the world, particularly in India and China. Amid this rush, I wanted to understand the actual dynamics pushing this business and whether all of these IPs follow quality standards. … Read More
The Biggest Supplier in the Biggest Mobile Market is a Company You Have Never Heard Of
If you live in the bay area it is easy to come to the conclusion that Apple has huge market share and is in a very strong position in the mobile market. Everyone has an iPhone.
But the truth is less flattering. Yes, Apple continues to make large profits and it made record iPhone shipments. However, only 51M and Wall Street expected nearly… Read More
The Changing Semiconductor Foundry Landscape!
The foundry landscape is changing again and it is definitely something that should be discussed. There are some people, mostly influenced by Intel, that feel the foundry business has hit the wall at 20nm which couldn’t be further from the truth. After spending 30 years working in Silicon Valley, I have experienced a lot of change… Read More
CDNLive World Tour
CDNLive is becoming a real worldwide event, starting in March in San Jose and ending in November in Tel Aviv, Israel.
The complete schedule is:
- March 11-12th, Santa Clara, California
- May 19th-21st, Munich, Germany
- July 15th, Seoul, Korea
- August 15th, Shanghai, China
- August 7th, Hsinchu, Taiwan
- August 11-12th, Bangalore, India
A Brief History of the Apple iPod
In January 2001 we had a new American president, George W. Bush, I was working at Mentor Graphics, and Apple introduced an MP3 player called the iPod with a hard drive capable of holding 1,000 songs. In the previous decades we enjoyed portable music from tape-based, CD, or mini-CD devices like the Sony Walkman. The first several generations… Read More
Xilinx’s Mixed Signal FPGA
Something in all the Xilinx chatter of UltraScale 20nm, 16nm, having massive amounts of Gigabit transceivers, DSP blocks, RAM, HLS, Rapid Design Closure gets lost… and that is Xilinx’s ability for Mixed Signals. I do not mean when you are talking with the wife (Remember Listen!), but a wonderful block that lives within… Read More
Tools for Chips and Dips an Overview of the Semiconductor Tools Market