Tuesday morning at DAC I enjoyed a free breakfast courtesy of Synopsysand GLOBALFOUNDRIESwhere I learned more about the emerging market of IoT, and what it means to semiconductor, EDA and IP vendors. Panelists included: Semico Research, HP, Synopsys, GLOBALFOUNDRIES and Broadcom. … Read More





Ceaseless Field Test for Safety Critical Devices
While focus of the semiconductor industry has shifted to DACin this week and unfortunately I couldn’t attend due to some of my management exams, in my spare time I was browsing through some of the webpages of Cadenceto check their new offerings (although they have a great list of items to showcase at DAC) and to my pleasure I came across… Read More
High Sigma Yield Analysis and Optimization at DAC
When I hear the phrase “high sigma” I think of the EDA vendor Solido, however at DAC on Monday I visited another EDA company called MunEDAthat has several products of interest to transistor-level IC designers. I was able to speak with three different people from MunEDA and here’s what I learned.… Read More
AMS Panel: Micronas, Infineon, AMD, STMicro
Synopsyshosted an AMS Luncheon panel today at DACin the Westin Hotel and invited four customers to talk about their actual design challenges and experiences. I’ve typed up my notes from this event.… Read More
Affordable AMS EDA Tools at DAC
First thing at DACtoday I met with Greg Lebsack of Tanner EDA to ask about what’s new in the past year for his EDA company. Here are my meeting notes, so there’s not much prose for my DAC blogs this year.
… Read More
Getting the best from a Radio Spectrum: MIMO
Exchanging data through wireless network is that we are doing every day, every hour if not every minute. Not only we use our smartphone to discuss or exchange Emails, but also to download, or upload, massive amounts of data. Thus, the radio spectrum has become to be busy, and is an expansive piece for carriers. Optimizing this radio… Read More
Advice for Out-of-towners
You are visiting San Francisco and you have dutifully read your guide book. Let me give you some contrarian advice.
See the Golden Gate Bridge. The best way is not to drive there or get a taxi, but to rent a bicycle (lots of places on that side of the city, try Googling “blazing saddles”) and cycle across the bridge. You can then go down … Read More
Gary Smith at DAC
Gary Smith once again wore his signature white coat and extolled the virtues of system level design and automation. The room at the Intercontinental was packed, and the folks in the hallway outside were noisy as usual, eager for the party to start after Gary finished.… Read More
Everything You Wanted to Know About the Internet But Were Afraid to Ask
Every year, Mary Meeker produces a huge presentation (140 slides) on important trends in the internet. This year’s came out at the end of last week. It is well worth the time it takes to go through it. Here is the first slide, effectively the table of contents:
- Key Internet Trends
- Status Update: Tech Stocks / Education / Healthcare
Apple is Roaring Back!
Mind you, this post is being written by the same guy who wrote8 Reasons Why I Hate My iPhone 5. I’ve been living with the Samsung S4 for about a year, and am ready to return to the Apple fold. It’s partially that too many, or perhaps the wrong apps running on my phone cause big problems. This manifests itself anywhere from … Read More
Facing the Quantum Nature of EUV Lithography