I have been spending some time at Semicon West at the Moscone center the last couple of days. Since it was only a month ago that I was there for DAC, the first contrast is the size of the show. DAC didn’t fill Moscone South. Semicon fills Moscone South, and North, and the corridor between. And Moscone West on the other side of 4th … Read More


Atrenta Technology Forum, Japan
The 1st Atrenta Technology Forum in Japan (well, it used to be the user group meeting, so it’s only the first in a very technical sense) is next week on July 19th from 1pm until 5.15pm. It will be held in the Shin-Yokohama Kokusai Hotel (how to access it here).
In the unlikely event that non-Japanese are reading this blog, here’s… Read More
Formal Going Mainstream
In Mike Muller’s keynote at DAC he wanted to make formal approaches an integral part of writing RTL. After all, formal captures design intent and then, at least much of the time, can verify whether the RTL written actually matches that intent. Today, formal is not used that way and is typically something served “on the side” by specialist… Read More
Intel Opens a New Front with ASML
Behind great humor often lies irony. In the midst of a struggle by the European Union to extract $1.3B from Intel in an ages old Anti-Trust case, the latter makes a strategic move to embolden the Dutch firm ASML to accelerate the development of 450mm and EUV and thus save a continental jewel. What now say EU? When disfunction and bankruptcy… Read More
SPICE Timing Correlation for IC Place and Route
SPICE circuit simulation is used for transistor-level analysis while Place and Route tools are typically used to connect cells and blocks of an SoC, so why would there be a connection between these two EDA tools?
I read a press release today from ATopTech and Berkeley Design Automation that talked about how SPICE and P&R are … Read More
DAC 2012 Cheerleader Controversy!
First, I must say that I’m biased. I like Cheerleaders, they are lots of fun, I even married one. Second, I’m not a fan of Peggy Aycinena. She has been on her EDA feminist rant for years now and I have been targeted multiple times. My solution has been to ignore her and any publication that supports her but this time she has gone too far.… Read More
Testing ARM Cores – Mentor and ARM Lunch Seminar
If you are involved in testing memory or logic of ARM-based designs, you’ll want to attend this free seminar on July 17, 2012 in Santa Clara. Mentor Graphics and ARM have a long standing partnership, and have optimized the Mentor test products (a.k.a Tessent) for the ARM processors and memory IP.
The lunch seminar runs from 10:30-1:00… Read More
NVM IP: Novocell Semiconductor has announced an expansion of their product line
Novocell Semiconductor, core antifuse-based OTP Smartbit™ technology was first patented in 2001 and 2002, and created a solid foundation for the first ten years,” stated Walt Novosel, President and CTO, “Since then, our customer-driven focus has led to numerous innovations in our original high reliability Smartbit-based… Read More
Intel Goes Vertical to Guarantee PC Growth
A Bloomberg article from early July caught my eye as it portends further changes in the competitive mobile market landscape. Intel is now in the business of paying Taiwanese panel suppliers to ensure the supply of touch-screen panels for PC ultrabooks. In essence it says that to win in the PC market, Intel has to mimic Apple and go … Read More
Intel’s finfets too complex and difficult?
Thanks to SemiWiki readers for the feedback and comments on the previous “Introduction to FinFET Technology” posts – very much appreciated! The next installment on FinFET modeling will be uploaded soon.
In the interim, Dan forwarded the following link to me “ Intel’s FinFETs too complicated and difficult, says … Read More
TSMC N3 Process Technology Wiki