At the keynote for ICCAD this morning, John Gustafson of AMD (where he is Chief Graphics Product Architect as well as a Fellow) talked about parallel algorithms. Like Gene Amdahl, whose law states that parallel algorithms are limited by the part that cannot be parallelized (if 10% is serial, then even if the other part takes place… Read More




16nm FinFET versus 20nm Planar!
The common theme amongst semiconductor ecosystem conferences this year is FinFETS, probably the most exciting technology we will see this decade. A lot has been written on SemiWiki about FinFETS, it is one of the top trending search terms, but there is some confusion about the process naming so let me attempt to explain.
In planar… Read More
Chip On Wafer On Substrate (CoWoS)
Our EDA industry loves three letter acronyms so credit the same industry for creating a five letter acronym CoWoS. Two weeks ago TSMC announced tape-out of their first CoWoS test chip integrating with JEDEC Wide I/O mobile DRAM interface, making me interested enough to read more about it. At the recent TSMC Open Innovation Platform… Read More
Electromigration (EM) with an Electrically-Aware IC Design Flow
Electromigration (EM) is a reliability concern for IC designers because a failure in the field could spell disaster as in lost human life or even bankruptcy for a consumer electronics company. In the old days of IC design we would follow a sequential and iterative design process of:… Read More
ARM TechCon 2012 Trip Report
I must say the ARM conference gets better every year, as do the attendance numbers. More than 4,000 people showed up including 5 SemiWiki bloggers, two of which I had not yet had the pleasure of meeting.
First I have to mention my favorite vendor booth. I don’t remember what company it was but the girls in fishnet stockings giving out… Read More
Internet of Things
Another announcement from the Warren East’s ARM keynote this morning was the creation of a SIG within Weightless, which is an organization responsible for delivering royalty-free open standards to enable the Internet of Things (IoT). The SIG is focused on accelerating the adoption of Weightless as a wireless wide area… Read More
Jasper Apps White Paper
Just in time for the Jasper User Group meeting, Jasper have a new white paper explaining the concept of JasperGold Apps.
First the User Group Meeting. It is in Cupertino at the Cypress Hotel November 12-13th. For more details and to register, go here. The meeting is free for qualified attendees (aka users). One thing I noticed at the… Read More
SpyGlass IP Kit 2.0
On Halloween, Atrenta and TSMC announced the availability of SpyGlass IP Kit 2.0. IP Kit is a fundamental element of TSMC’s soft IP9000 Quality Assessment program that assesses the robustness and completeness of soft (synthesizable) IP.
IP Kit 2.0 will be fully supported on TSMC-Online and available to all TSMC’s soft IP alliance… Read More
ARM and a LEG
I went to Warren East’s keynote speech at ARM Techcon today. There had been some hints earlier in the week that some significant announcements would be made and, while they were not earth-shattering, I think that they will be significant in the long term.
One interesting thing that Warren pointed out is that the ARM partner… Read More
Power, Predictions and Pills: Jonathan Koomey, ARM TechCon
ARM TechCon Software and Systems Keynote: Why Ultra-Low Power Computing Will Change Everything Simon Segars, speaking of the importance of continuing low power initiatives, introduced Dr. Jonathan Koomey, Consulting Professor at Stanford. (First impression, our kind of guy: He wears engineer shoes, not sales shoes!)
Koomey… Read More
Memory Innovation at the Edge: Power Efficiency Meets Green Manufacturing