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The First 14nm FinFET Wafer Sighting!

The First 14nm FinFET Wafer Sighting!
by Daniel Nenni on 01-11-2013 at 12:10 pm

Incredibly exciting! Even my beautiful wife was impressed by the rainbow of colors it reflected. From left to right: 28nm, 20nm, and 14nm wafers. The 20nm and 14nm wafers are from the GLOBALFOUNDRIES NY fab, made in the USA! GF also announced another $3-4B CAPEX for 2013 to increase capacity of all three of their 300mm fabs (Singapore,… Read More


Predictions are hard, especially about the future

Predictions are hard, especially about the future
by Paul McLellan on 01-11-2013 at 11:26 am

I was asked to make some predictions about the EDA, semiconductor and electronic systems markets for 2013. I decided that it would be more fun to make some plausible predictions, some of which will be right, rather than go for anodyne predictions (“Cadence will acquire a couple of startups”) which are uninformative,… Read More


A Brief History of Synopsys DesignWare ® IP

A Brief History of Synopsys DesignWare ® IP
by Daniel Nenni on 01-11-2013 at 9:00 am

Let’s play word association. I say “EDA”, you immediately think “Synopsys”. I say “IP” and although 15 years ago you may not, today, you think “Synopsys”. For nearly two decades, Synopsys has grown its IP business through both organic development and acquisition, with a clear focus on enabling designers to meet their time-to-market… Read More


TSMC Apple Rumors Debunked!

TSMC Apple Rumors Debunked!
by Daniel Nenni on 01-11-2013 at 8:00 am

Disclaimer: I’m a blogger and by definition I share my observations, opinions, and experiences. Journalists and Analysts on the other hand are held to a much higher legal standard which is why they cite undisclosed sources and use double speak to shield themselves legally. Why trust a SemiWiki blogger over a Journalist or an Analyst?… Read More


Reducing Dynamic and Static Power in Memories

Reducing Dynamic and Static Power in Memories
by Paul McLellan on 01-10-2013 at 3:46 pm

Sequential approaches to power reduction work well on logic implemented using standard cells. But part of every SoC, sometimes a very large part, is taken up with embedded memories for which alternative approaches are required. Not only do these memories occupy up to half of the area they also account for as much as 75% of the power… Read More


Global Design Closure

Global Design Closure
by Paul McLellan on 01-09-2013 at 8:34 pm

Satish Soman, chief solutions architect at Atrenta, was invited to give a presentation on Global Design Closure at the VLSI India conference in Pune at the start of this month. He talked about the need to close the gap between the typical SoC development methodology and what happens in reality.


SoCs are really put together in two … Read More


Oasys RealTime Explorer

Oasys RealTime Explorer
by Paul McLellan on 01-09-2013 at 8:00 am

The current methodology in design in most companies, and certainly many of the biggest, is that front end RTL design is done by one team with a limited set of front-end design tools. This is then eventually passed off to the physical design team who run all the scripts, do the “real” synthesis, place & route and timing… Read More


Interface Protocols, USB3, PCI Express, MIPI, SATA… the winners and losers in 2012

Interface Protocols, USB3, PCI Express, MIPI, SATA… the winners and losers in 2012
by Eric Esteve on 01-08-2013 at 5:25 am

Who makes the decision and declare that a specific interface protocol is successful? Not me, as I can only consolidate market share data and some insight information coming from the industry. The end user, when going to a shop (real or virtual) and spend a significant part of his budget to buy an electronic product, selecting among… Read More


OTP @ 2013 Common Platform Technology Forum

OTP @ 2013 Common Platform Technology Forum
by Daniel Nenni on 01-06-2013 at 9:00 pm

Sidense will be exhibiting at the Common Platform Technology Forum in Santa Clara, California on February 5, during which time they will be discussing their one-transistor, one-time programmable (1T-OTP) memory IP products. Based on their patented 1T-Fuse™ bit cell, Sidense antifuse-based 1T-OTP macros offer a secure, reliable,… Read More