Primarius 2B

How the Apple-Samsung Duel Will Lead to Wintel 2.0

How the Apple-Samsung Duel Will Lead to Wintel 2.0
by Ed McKernan on 08-02-2012 at 11:00 am

The High Tech Trial of this Century: Apple vs. Samsung may end up being the catalyzing event that advances the established PC Monopolists known as Wintel (Microsoft and Intel) into leadership positions in the new era known as the Mobile Tsunami. Not a chance you say? Consider that the Apple, Samsung War is one that will not be settled… Read More


Cadence Digital Flow

Cadence Digital Flow
by Paul McLellan on 08-01-2012 at 8:01 pm

Cadence has a series of webinars about their digital flow, focused on 28nm design. It is easy for all of us in the EDA ecosystem to assume that everyone is already doing 20/22nm design, if not 14nm already. But in fact most designs are still being done at 45nm and 65nm; 28nm is still a big challenging step.

One of the tools in the Cadence… Read More


Verdi Integrated with Synopsys Protocol Analyzer

Verdi Integrated with Synopsys Protocol Analyzer
by Paul McLellan on 08-01-2012 at 4:28 pm

Josefina Hobbs, a solutions architect at Synopsys, shows the integration of Synopsys Protocol Analyzer with SpringSoft’s Verdi using the Verdi Interoperability Apps (VIA) which gives open access to the Verdi KDB and FSDB databases. She also demonstrates protocol debug made easy using the Protocol Analyzer. This gives… Read More


Schematic Capture and SPICE Simulation in the Cloud

Schematic Capture and SPICE Simulation in the Cloud
by Daniel Payne on 07-31-2012 at 8:10 pm

In April I blogged about using the iPad for schematic capture and SPICE circuit simulation. My conclusion was that the technology was interesting but not quite ready for commercial use. Today I tried out the web-based version using my Google Chrome browser instead of the iPad. Install the Chrome app here or visit www.ischematic.comRead More


A Brief History of the Fabless Industry

A Brief History of the Fabless Industry
by Daniel Nenni on 07-31-2012 at 7:30 pm

Even though most of us have witnessed the emergence of the fabless semiconductor industry it is still good to go back and remember how we got to where we are today, to realize that the semiconductors that you now hold in your hand were enabled by the rise of the fabless semiconductor business model. This is the first in a series of blogs… Read More


Synopsys Acquires Ciranova

Synopsys Acquires Ciranova
by Daniel Payne on 07-30-2012 at 6:00 pm

Consolidation continues in the EDA industry with Synopsys announcing today that they acquired Ciranova, a provider of software to automate custom IC layout. Remember that Synopsys invested in Ciranova back in March 2008 and September 2010 (along with Intel Capital, Mentor Graphics and Alloy Ventures), so this deal has some … Read More


The Coming Battle for AMD’s x86 Hidden Cache

The Coming Battle for AMD’s x86 Hidden Cache
by Ed McKernan on 07-30-2012 at 10:58 am

Not yet a year into Rory Read’s term and the AMD board must be considering that the value of the x86 patents and engineering talent is worth much more than the stocks $3B valuation and easier to fathom putting on the auction block than continuing to sell $25 processors into the back channels of China and the Developing World. As I read… Read More


The Unknown in Your Design Can be Dangerous

The Unknown in Your Design Can be Dangerous
by Graham Bell on 07-30-2012 at 10:00 am

The SystemVerilog standard defines an X as an “unknown” value which is used to represent when simulation cannot definitely resolve a signal to a “1”, a “0”, or a “Z”. Synthesis, on the other hand, defines an X as a “don’t care”, enabling greater flexibility and optimization. Unfortunately, Verilog RTL simulation semantics often… Read More


Tensilica Joins Wi-Fi Alliance

Tensilica Joins Wi-Fi Alliance
by Paul McLellan on 07-30-2012 at 7:00 am

The Wi-Fi Alliance is an industry consortium dedicated to driving adoption of the various Wi-Fi standards which also go under the rather less catchy name of IEEE 802.11x (where the x varies depending on the generation of the standard, right now a, b, g or n). They also certify devices for interoperability.

Wi-Fi Alliance says that… Read More


SemiWiki.com Analytics Exposed 2012

SemiWiki.com Analytics Exposed 2012
by Daniel Nenni on 07-29-2012 at 7:30 pm


About 4 years ago some of my semiconductor cohorts urged me to blog. “Hey Dan, you’re a funny guy, write about EDA and IP, make us laugh!” Of course what I think is funny most people think is snarky, which is a nice word for being a smart ass. The traditional semiconductor press was crumbling, the non traditional EDA websites were outdated,… Read More