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Navigating the new patent landscape

Navigating the new patent landscape
by Beth Martin on 02-08-2013 at 12:00 am

If you are considering filing a patent, you should know about the new patent rules effectinve on March 16, 2013. Most importantly, patent rights will switch from “first-to-invent” to “first-to-file.” Before we continue, I am not a lawyer; I’m just a dumb blogger. Seek actual legal advice about the new patent laws if you think… Read More


Apple and Samsung Do It Again

Apple and Samsung Do It Again
by Paul McLellan on 02-07-2013 at 11:54 pm

The numbers are starting to come in for how everyone did in Q4. According to Cannacord Genuity, Apple made 69% of the profit and Samsung made 34%. What do you notice about those numbers? They add up to more than 100%. HTC supposedly made 1% of the profit and everyone else either broke even or lost money. Basically Apple and Samsung have… Read More


Tubes of the Future

Tubes of the Future
by Paul McLellan on 02-07-2013 at 10:00 pm

So what is a silicon nanowire? It is basically a FET where the active element is a wire 3-20nm in diameter. So where a FinFET has the gate wrapped around 3 sides of the transistor, a nanowire (NW) has it wrapped around all four. In essence, the wire runs through the middle of the gate.

There seem to be three issues about building a silicon… Read More


ARMs in the Clouds

ARMs in the Clouds
by Paul McLellan on 02-07-2013 at 7:10 pm

The most interesting session at the Linley Tech Data Center Conference last week was the last one, on Designing Power Efficient Servers. What this was really about was whether ARM would have any success in the server market and what Intel’s response might be.

Datacenters are now very focused on power efficiency and many track… Read More


Notes from Common Platform: Collaborate or Die

Notes from Common Platform: Collaborate or Die
by Beth Martin on 02-07-2013 at 2:16 pm

FinFETs are hot, carbon nanotubes are cool, and collaboration is the key to continued semiconductor scaling. These were the main messages at the 2013 Common Platform Technology Forum in Santa Clara.

The collaboration message ran through most presenations, like the afternoon talk by Subi Kengeri of GLOBALFOUNDRIES and Joe Sawicki… Read More


No EUV before 7nm?

No EUV before 7nm?
by Paul McLellan on 02-07-2013 at 1:31 pm

I was at the Common Platform Technology Forum this week. One of the most interesting sessions is IBM’s Gary Patton giving an overview of the state of semiconductor fabrication. Then, at lunchtime, he is one of the people that the press can question. In this post, I’m going to focus on Extreme Ultra-Violet (EUV) lithography.… Read More


Using Soft IP and Not Getting Burned

Using Soft IP and Not Getting Burned
by Daniel Payne on 02-07-2013 at 10:11 am

The most exciting EDA + Semi IP company that I ever worked at was Silicon Compilers in the 1980’s because it allowed you to start with a concept then implement to physical layout using a library of parameterized IP, the big problem was verifying that all of the IP combinations were in fact correct. Speed forward to today and our… Read More


Semiconductors Down 2.7% in 2012, May Grow 7.5% in 2013

Semiconductors Down 2.7% in 2012, May Grow 7.5% in 2013
by Bill Jewell on 02-06-2013 at 10:29 pm

Guidance 1Q13 292x300

The world semiconductor market in 2012 was $292 billion – down 2.7% from $300 billion in 2011, according to WSTS. The 2012 decline followed a slight gain of 0.4% in 2011. Fourth quarter 2012 was down 0.3% from third quarter. The first quarter of the 2013 will likely show a decline from 4Q 2012 based on typical seasonal patterns and theRead More


RTL Clock Gating Analysis Cuts Power by 20% in AMD Chip!

RTL Clock Gating Analysis Cuts Power by 20% in AMD Chip!
by Daniel Nenni on 02-06-2013 at 10:00 pm

Approximately 25% of SemiWiki traffic originates from search engines and the key search terms are telling. Since the beginning of SemiWiki, “low power design” has been one of the top searches. This is understandable since the mobile market has been leading us down the path to fame and fortune. Clearly lowering the… Read More


UVM: Lowering the barrier to IP reuse

UVM: Lowering the barrier to IP reuse
by Don Dingee on 02-06-2013 at 2:00 am

One of my acquaintances at Intel must have some of the same viewing habits I do, based on a recent Tweet he sent. He was probably watching “The Men Who Built America” on the History Channel and thinking as I have a lot recently about how the captains of industry managed to drive ideas to monopolies in the late 1800s and early 1900s.

Difference

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