Our world is decidedly analog, made up of stimuli for our five basic senses of sight, touch, hearing, taste, and smell, and more advanced senses like balance and acceleration. To be effective on the Internet of Things, digital devices must integrate with the analog world, interfacing with sensors and control elements.… Read More




The Semiconductor Landscape – II
It has been a year since my article Semiconductor Landscape in Jan 2012 I wanted to look back into the major events over the year and then anticipate what’s in store going forward. What has happened over the year is much more than what I could foresee. Major consolidation in EDA space – Synopsys acquired Magma, SpringSoft, Ciranova,… Read More
Wafer Costs: Out of Control or Not?
I didn’t attend the International Electronic Device Meeting (IEDM) earlier this month, but there have been a lot of reports on the inter webs especially about 20nm and 14nm processes. Some of this is really geeky stuff but I think that perhaps the most interesting thing I’ve read about is summarized in this chart:
This… Read More
Happy New Year from SemiWiki!
It was an amazing year for SemiWiki and I would like to sincerely thank all who participated. SemiWiki traffic doubled again which is amazing in itself. SemiWiki membership more than tripled as we continue to add vertical markets (EDA, IP, Services, Foundry). More people are blogging on SemiWiki and the Forums and Wikis are coming… Read More
Phablet, e-reader, Nexus
In November and December I upgraded three devices and share my opinions on the utility of each:
- Samsung Galaxy Note (aka Phablet = Phone + Tablet)
- Kindle Paperwhite (e-reader)
- Google Nexus 7 (Tablet)
Cadence 3D Methodology
A couple of weeks ago was the 3D Architectures for Semiconductor Integration and Packagingconference in Redwood City. Cadence presented the changes that they have been making to their tool flow to enabled 2.5D (interposer-based) and true 3D TSV-based designs. You know what TSV stands for by now right? Through-silicon-via, … Read More
Intel 22nm SoC Process Exposed!
The biggest surprise embedded in the Intel 22nm SoC disclosure is that they still do NOT use Double Patterning which is a big fat hairy deal if you are serious about the SoC foundry business. The other NOT so surprising thing I noticed in reviewing the blogosphere response is that the industry term FinFET was dominant while the Intel… Read More
Equipment Down 16% in 2012, Flat to Down in 2013
Shipments of semiconductor manufacturing equipment have been trending downward since June 2012, based on combined data from SEMI for North American and European manufacturers and from SEAJ for Japanese manufacturers. The market bounced back strongly in late 2009 and in 2010 after the 2008 downturn to return to the $3 billion… Read More
Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner!
I have no idea if chicken was actually on the menu, but on December 12, Calibre RealTime picked up its thirdindustry award, this time the 2012 Elektra Award for Design Tools and Development Software from the European Electronics Industry. Calibre RealTime came out on top in a group full of prestigious finalists, including ByteSnap,… Read More
Apply within: four embedded instrumentation approaches
Anyone who has been around technology consortia or standards bodies will tell you that the timeline from inception to mainstream adoption of a new embedded technology is about 5 years, give or take a couple dream cycles. You can always tell the early stage, where very different concepts try to latch on to the same, simple term.
Such… Read More
Flynn Was Right: How a 2003 Warning Foretold Today’s Architectural Pivot