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SilabTech Awarded 2013 Best Start-up in India

SilabTech Awarded 2013 Best Start-up in India
by Eric Esteve on 01-20-2014 at 8:32 am

This is obviously great news for SilabTech, and this is the type of news which will change the perception that we (non-Indian) have of the Semiconductor industry in India. About 15-20 years ago, the India Embedded/VLSI industry was perceived as low cost design resource pool, a good place where to implement design center. The hidden… Read More


Intel is NOT Transparent Again!

Intel is NOT Transparent Again!
by Daniel Nenni on 01-19-2014 at 9:00 am

Recent headlines suggest that Intel was not transparent about some of the products they showed at the CES keynote. Intel confirmed on Friday that they used ARM-based chips for some of the products but would not say which ones. When your company’s tag line is “Intel Inside” and you hold up a product during your keynote wouldn’t… Read More


Managing Heat for System Reliability

Managing Heat for System Reliability
by Pawan Fangaria on 01-17-2014 at 8:30 am

In most of the electronic equipments, semiconductor chips are a major source of heat generation. And in semiconductor designs several hardware and software techniques are being used to contain power dissipation; a major cause for heat. However due to multiple functionality being squeezed into small form factors, we continue… Read More


JasperGold COV App, the Swiss Army Knife for Verification

JasperGold COV App, the Swiss Army Knife for Verification
by Paul McLellan on 01-16-2014 at 12:55 am

At the Jasper Users Group meeting in October Rajeev Ranjan presented on the JasperGold COV App which he described as the Swiss army knife for verification. It comes in many sizes and contains many useful tools.

The primary goal of COV is to provide coverage metrics:

  • stimuli coverage: how restrictive is the design behavior under
Read More

Handel Jones Predicts Process Roadmap Slips

Handel Jones Predicts Process Roadmap Slips
by Paul McLellan on 01-15-2014 at 11:51 pm

At the SEMI ISS conference earlier this week, the last speaker in the technology challenges section was Handel Jones of IBS. I’ve known Handel since the mid-1980s when he came to VLSI Technology and told us we were losing money on 90% of the designs we were doing but our cost model was not good enough and so we didn’t even… Read More


Positive Semiconductor Job Outlook in 2014!

Positive Semiconductor Job Outlook in 2014!
by Daniel Nenni on 01-15-2014 at 5:00 pm

Based on local traffic patterns and my experience in Silicon Valley over the last 30 years we are looking at a much higher employment rate inside the fabless semiconductor ecosystem, absolutely. Jobs are being filled more so than I have seen in the past ten years. The challenge of course is finding the right people for the right job… Read More


International CES Wrapup

International CES Wrapup
by Bill Jewell on 01-15-2014 at 4:00 pm

Semiconductor Intelligence attended the International CES last week in Las Vegas, Nevada. A wide variety of consumer electronics devices were displayed at the conference. These ranged from:

· Fascinating – but is it practical? (personal robots, drones)
· Exciting – but when will it be cheap enough for the mass market? (UHD TV,
Read More


MIPI Alliance Specifications Adoption Status in 2013

MIPI Alliance Specifications Adoption Status in 2013
by Eric Esteve on 01-15-2014 at 11:00 am

At the beginning of December in Paris I had the opportunity to make a presentation to a very impressive audience, technical gurus from companies contributing to MIPI Alliance specification were here, including ST-Microelectronics, Intel, Qualcomm, TI, Toshiba, Nokia, Samsung, to name a few. … Read More


Is Intel the Concorde of Semiconductor Companies?

Is Intel the Concorde of Semiconductor Companies?
by Daniel Nenni on 01-15-2014 at 8:00 am

An Intel executive recently told me that my Intel articles on SemiWiki are used to motivate employees to work hard and prove me wrong. The converse is also true. The senseless Intel fabless ecosystem bashing motivates me to continue to write so it is a win-win scenario, absolutely. In fact, I should credit Intel’s Mark BohrRead More


The State of 450mm Wafers. And Intel Gossip

The State of 450mm Wafers. And Intel Gossip
by Paul McLellan on 01-14-2014 at 11:55 pm

Paul Farrar, the General Manager of the Global 450mm Consortium (G450C) presented at the SEMI ISS conference today. What is G450C, it is a public-private consortium to develop a cost-effective 450mm wafer fabrication infrastructure, develop equipment prototypes and coordinate the industry move to 450mm. It is located in Albany… Read More