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Apple’s iPAD 3 Kicks Off a Season For Silicon Valley Re-Alignments

Apple’s iPAD 3 Kicks Off a Season For Silicon Valley Re-Alignments
by Ed McKernan on 02-13-2012 at 3:43 pm

The Corporate PC may finally be on life supports and with it the purveyors of the hardware and software solutions as consumer adoption of new technology outpaces the carefully planned IT budgets that guarantee positive 3 year Returns on Investments (ROI). The Apple of the consumer’s eye will soon feast on the iPAD 3 with its retina… Read More


Smartphone shipments in Q4’11, the Milky Way the new limit!

Smartphone shipments in Q4’11, the Milky Way the new limit!
by Eric Esteve on 02-13-2012 at 3:51 am

In a previous blog, I was forecasting smartphone shipment to reach 430 million units in 2011. I was wrong! Apparently, I am not better than other analysts, as the actual figures for the smartphone shipment in 2011 are more than slightly different, as these have topped 491.4 million units! After 304 million in 2010, that’s a 61.3 percent… Read More


AMD Financials are Puzzling!?!?!?!

AMD Financials are Puzzling!?!?!?!
by Daniel Nenni on 02-12-2012 at 4:00 pm

As I mentioned in my previous blog, AMD and GlobalFoundries,it is rather difficult to interpret AMD’s financial results. At the end of the quarterly earnings conference calls analysts get to ask questions. It is the comedy relief portion of the call usually, so I blog this today to better prepare these so called analysts Read More


DFM Industry Survey

DFM Industry Survey
by Beth Martin on 02-10-2012 at 1:28 pm

As part of the DFM Conference at the SPIE Advance Lithography symposium, the DFM committee is conducting an informal survey on the current state of Design For Manufacturability in the Semiconductor Industry.

Please take this anonymous 16 question survey to identify critical Design for Manufacturability (DFM) issues facing… Read More


Yes, there is such a thing as a free…model

Yes, there is such a thing as a free…model
by Paul McLellan on 02-09-2012 at 8:18 pm

I have been saying for years, ever since I started working at VaST, the biggest barrier to adoption of virtual platform technology for what I like to call virtualized software development is the availability of models. If models do not already exist when they are needed there are two issues: it takes money to develop them but, probably… Read More


DFM at SPIE Advance Litho show

DFM at SPIE Advance Litho show
by Beth Martin on 02-09-2012 at 6:40 pm

This year’s SPIE Advanced Lithography is loaded with interesting keynotes and sessions. To help me narrow down what to see, I spoke with John Sturtevant. John is co-chair of the Design for Manufacturability through Design-Process Integration conference, and the director for technical marketing for RET products at Mentor Graphics.… Read More


Why X-Fab uses 3D Resistance Extraction and Analysis

Why X-Fab uses 3D Resistance Extraction and Analysis
by Daniel Payne on 02-09-2012 at 11:18 am

At DAC in 2011 I visited an EDA company called Silicon Frontline Technology because they offered some 3D field solver tools used to create the highest accuracy netlists that can then be simulated with a SPICE circuit simulator to predict timing, power and IR drop. A recent press release with X-FAB and Silicon Frontline looked interesting… Read More


DVCon: Hardware/software Co-design from a Software Perspective

DVCon: Hardware/software Co-design from a Software Perspective
by Paul McLellan on 02-09-2012 at 4:56 am

The EDAC Emerging Companies Comittee (would that be the EDACECC?) is organizing a free panel session one evening at DVCon. It is Monday February 27th from 6pm to 8.30pm. I don’t yet have a room but it will be at the DoubleTree Hotel where DVCon is being held.

EDA companies often address hardware/software co-design from a hardware… Read More


Powering the Platforms: ARM’s 2012 Approach

Powering the Platforms: ARM’s 2012 Approach
by Don Dingee on 02-08-2012 at 4:30 pm

A client turned me on to a great new book, “The Age of the Platform” by Phil Simon. It’s about how Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google have radically transformed the landscape. For me, it’s not just social networking – it’s social computing, changing how things are designed.

I’m borrowing this right from Phil’s… Read More


The Old Order Changeth

The Old Order Changeth
by Paul McLellan on 02-07-2012 at 3:02 pm

It is interesting watching as changes in technology bring giants to their knees. Far and away the best book on the subject is Clayton Christensen’s The Innovator’s Dilemma. If you haven’t read it then rush out and buy it immediately. In tech, you are not educated if you haven’t.

Two things made me think … Read More