On Friday (April 19[SUP]th[/SUP]) I will be keynoting FinFET day at the EDPS conference in Monterey. This is an excellent opportunity to ask the experts about the challenges of FinFET design and manufacturing in an intimate setting (60 people). If you are interested register today and use the promo codeSemiWiki-EDPS-JFR and … Read More




Ivo Bolsens’ Keynote on the All-Programmable SoC
Ivo Bolsens, the CTO of Xilinx, is giving the opening keynote at the Electronic Design Process Symposium (EDPS) in Monterey on Thursday and Friday this coming week. The title of his keynote is The All Programmable SoC – At the Heart of Next Generation Embedded Systems. He covers a lot of ground but the core of his presentation… Read More
3D IC: Are We There Yet?
For the last few years, thru silicon via (TSV) based ICs have been looming in the mist of the future. Just how far ahead are they? Xiliinx famously has a high-end gate-array in production on a 2.5D interposer, Micron has a memory cube, TSMC has done various things in 3D that it calls CoWoS (chip on wafer on substrate), Qualcomm have been… Read More
TSMC Responds to Samsung!
This was the 19[SUP]th[/SUP] annual TSMC Symposium and by far the best I have attended. Finally tired of the misinformation that plagues our industry, TSMC set the record straight with wafer and silicon correlated data. TSMC shipped more than 88 MILLION logic wafers in 2012, more than any other semiconductor company, that gives… Read More
How to make ESL really work – see EDPS
The Electronic Design Process Symposium (EDPS) is April 18 & 19 in Monterey. The workshop style Symposium is in its 20[SUP]th[/SUP] year. The first session is titled “ESL & Platforms”, which immediately follows the opening Keynote address by Ivo Bolsens, CTO of Xilinx.
In his keynote presentation Ivo will present how… Read More
High Level Synthesis – It’s for Real
It was spring 2010 and I was asked to attend an HLS (High Level Synthesis) meeting. To be honest I cringed, after my bad relationship with Accel DSP and broken promises my heart was all walled up and needed counseling. But my management had a way of making me an offer I could not refuse, like keeping my job. So reluctantly I went. Does your… Read More
Berkeley Design Automation and the Cadence Legal Action!
SemiWiki broke the story yesterday about the Cadence legal action against Berkeley Design Automation and today I spent time with customers of both companies in Silicon Valley getting reactions. That is the advantage of working in Silicon Valley for almost 30 years, if you don’t know the right people, you certainly know the people… Read More
Fabless to OIP
Suk Lee drew the short straw at the TSMC Symposium yesterday, with the 5pm slot. Not only late in the day but between all the attendees and free beer. The morning sessions had been standing room only, with several hundred standees (as they call them on muni around here, but isn’t a standee really someone being stood on?). But … Read More
Mentor U2U, Not Your Father’s User Conference
I talked to Michael Buehler-Garcia about the changes Mentor is making to U2U, their user conference. It is in San Jose on April 25th at the DoubleTree.
Firstly, there are 3 great keynotes, two of whom I’ve seen speak before and can unreservedly recommend. Unfortunately I’m traveling that week and won’t be able… Read More
Cadence Sues Berkeley Design Automation
Cadence has brought a suit against Berkeley Design Automation for, as far as I can see, integrating their AFS circuit simulator with the Virtuoso Analog Design Environment (ADE) without using the (licensed) Oasis product. Since BDA is (actually was) a member of the Cadence Connections program, they have to abide by the contract… Read More
Intel Foundry Delivers!