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When the lines on the roadmap get closer together

When the lines on the roadmap get closer together
by Don Dingee on 02-28-2013 at 12:53 pm

Tech aficionados love roadmaps. The confidence a roadmap instills – whether using tangible evidence or just a good story – can be priceless. Decisions on “the next big thing”, sometimes years and a lot of uncertain advancements away, hinge on the ability of a technology marketing team to define and communicate a roadmap.

Any roadmap… Read More


TSMC (Lincoln) vs Samsung (Clinton) vs Intel (Washington)

TSMC (Lincoln) vs Samsung (Clinton) vs Intel (Washington)
by Daniel Nenni on 02-28-2013 at 9:00 am

Usually I sleep on long flights, if not, I watch movies and read. The Lincoln movie was playing on EVA Air this week which reminded me that Abraham Lincoln was one of the greatest U.S. Presidents. If I was asked to pick a U.S. President as a spokesperson for TSMC it would be Honest Abe Lincoln. Chairman Morris Chang said it best during … Read More


Wally Rhines: Name That Graph!

Wally Rhines: Name That Graph!
by Paul McLellan on 02-27-2013 at 4:04 pm

Wally Rhines gave the keynote at DVCon yesterday. He started out with a game of “name that graph” which was unfortunately a bit spoiled since when the names were revealed the first line was off the top of the screen. But he extrapolated several trends such as the decreasing number of fabs (the current trend is that there… Read More


Shrinking audio creates issues and opportunities

Shrinking audio creates issues and opportunities
by Don Dingee on 02-26-2013 at 6:00 pm

There is a lot more to sound than meets the ear, and there a vast number of ways to deliver an audio experience. I recently trashed my gaming headset, replacing it with a Samson C03U mic and Audio-Technica ATH-PRO700MK2 headphones. It’s a huge upgrade, especially for podcasting, and I admit I was also motivated by research into digitalRead More


High and Low: High Level Synthesis and Low Power

High and Low: High Level Synthesis and Low Power
by Paul McLellan on 02-26-2013 at 2:39 pm

It is so widely accepted that it is already a cliche to say that “power is the new timing.” With more and more chips, the major challenge is not so much to meet timing but to meet timing without blowing out the power budget. Otherwise, you could just crank up the clock rate.

I’m going to be lazy so you can insert your … Read More


Intel and Altera Sign on for 14nm

Intel and Altera Sign on for 14nm
by Ed McKernan on 02-25-2013 at 5:00 pm

The announcement today that Intel will be a Foundry for Altera at 14nm is a significant turning point for the Semiconductor Industry and Intel’s Foundry fortunes of which the full ramifications are not likely to be understood by analysts. As a long time follower of Intel and a former co-founder of an FPGA startup (Cswitch), it has… Read More


Can Japan Regain Semiconductor Leadership?

Can Japan Regain Semiconductor Leadership?
by Paul McLellan on 02-25-2013 at 1:14 pm

In the 1980s, Japan was seen as the leader in the semiconductor industry. Their quality was higher, especially in memories, and the US was worried about falling behind. In fact Sematech was created in 1987 by the US government and a consortium of 14 US-based semiconductor companies primarily to pool investment on common problems… Read More


The New "Mobile Foundry" Era: Whose Wheelhouse?

The New "Mobile Foundry" Era: Whose Wheelhouse?
by Ed McKernan on 02-25-2013 at 1:12 pm

Nothing seems to raise the Visceral Ire of Semiwiki readers like the two words: Intel and Foundry. To get maximum steam coming out of the ears make sure you combine the two words in a sentence. Something along the lines like: Intel is Now Going to be a Leader in the Foundry Business. Pause…..Ok catch your breadth and now let’s move on … Read More


Who Allegedly Broke Tela’s Patents: Is Samsung or Qualcomm the Real Villain?

Who Allegedly Broke Tela’s Patents: Is Samsung or Qualcomm the Real Villain?
by Randy Smith on 02-25-2013 at 1:08 pm

I recently blogged about the actions filed by Tela Innovations at both the US International Trade Commission (USITC) and in federal district court. Those actions allege that five mobile phone manufacturers -HTC, LG, Motorola Mobility, Pantech, and Nokia – were importing handsets into the US which infringed on seven of… Read More


Learning Properties, Assertions and Covers for Hardware Design

Learning Properties, Assertions and Covers for Hardware Design
by Daniel Payne on 02-25-2013 at 12:10 pm

How do you learn new hardware design topics? I just got trained online about property-based verification for hardware designers using a free online class at Aldec. The material was created by Jerry Kaczynski, a Research Engineer at Aldec.

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