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HiFi audio…in all the devices

HiFi audio…in all the devices
by Paul McLellan on 01-09-2012 at 6:00 am

The big challenge with audio is that there are so many standards. Some of this is for historical reasons since audio for mobile (such as mp3), for the home (Dolby 5.1) and for cell-phone voice encoding/decoding have all had very different requirements, different standard setters and so on. But gradually everything is coming together.… Read More


Synopsys, the first 25 years

Synopsys, the first 25 years
by Paul McLellan on 01-08-2012 at 8:00 pm

Synopsys was started in 1986 and so 2011 was its 25th anniversary. They created a little timeline with some of their history. As with most companies, the earlier history is the most interesting, before it was clear what the future would bring. From 1986 to 1990 they grew to $22M in revenue, which was explosive growth. So explosive … Read More


Interface Protocols, USB3, HDMI, MIPI… the winner and losers in 2011

Interface Protocols, USB3, HDMI, MIPI… the winner and losers in 2011
by Eric Esteve on 01-07-2012 at 11:30 am

Releasing a new protocol like ThunderBolt, HDMI or SuperSpeed USB has not only to do with bandwidth performance or form factor of the connector as a guarantee of success. Some non-scientific parameters also play a role in the alchemy, that’s why forecasting the success of a certain protocol is such a hard task, and can’t be reduced… Read More


Economist on ARM vs Intel

Economist on ARM vs Intel
by Paul McLellan on 01-06-2012 at 7:16 pm

The Economist has a big article (may need a subscription, can’t tell because I have one, it’s in the print edition too) about ARM versus Intel. It is an interesting read since I think it misses so much of what really drives semiconductor. It tells the story about Intel trying to get into mobile (because it’s main… Read More


VLSI 2012 in Hyderabad

VLSI 2012 in Hyderabad
by Paul McLellan on 01-06-2012 at 3:59 pm

Atrenta will be on a panel session at VLSI 2012 next week in Hyderabad in the center of India. Since I had a development group there over a decade ago this is actually one of the few cities in India that I have visited. Beautiful but very hot at the time I was there.

Atrenta will be represented by Sathyam Pattanam the director of engineering… Read More


Tracking the Big Semiconductor Story of 2012

Tracking the Big Semiconductor Story of 2012
by Ed McKernan on 01-06-2012 at 3:56 pm

It’s just a matter of time – perhaps just a few months – before the greatest mystery of the semiconductor industry is revealed and the peaceful co-existence of the Fab vs Fabless world is blown apart. An arms race was started by Intel to challenge TSMC and Samsung on who would control not only the high valued processor but soon… Read More


What Dolpin Technology Uses for SPICE Circuit Simulation of IP

What Dolpin Technology Uses for SPICE Circuit Simulation of IP
by Daniel Payne on 01-06-2012 at 12:32 pm

Mo Tamjidi founded two Semiconductor IP companies Virage Logic and Dolphin Technology. After reading a press release about how Dolphin Technology is using FineSIM SPICE from Magma I decided to contact him and learn more about why they are now using that circuit simulator in the design of their memory, standard cells, and IO cells.… Read More


EDA Vendors Providing Secure Remote Support for an IC Design Flow

EDA Vendors Providing Secure Remote Support for an IC Design Flow
by Daniel Payne on 01-05-2012 at 5:38 pm

In my last corporate EDA job I had customers in Korea that were evaluating a new circuit simulator and getting strange results. When I asked, “Could you send me your test case?” the reply was always, “No, we cannot let any of our IC design data leave the building because of security concerns.”… Read More


Is Indian Semiconductor Relevant?

Is Indian Semiconductor Relevant?
by Daniel Nenni on 01-03-2012 at 9:42 pm

A common discussion amongst semiconductor professionals is the ROI of development activity in India. An interesting number I remember hearing at Virage Logic was that the development groups in India had a 30%+ turnover rate. Is that still the case? If so, that is very hard on the ROI.

Here are the 2012 SemiWiki geographical statistics… Read More


Altera’s New Dual ARM® Cortex™-A9 SoC Arria® and Cyclone® V FPGA Families

Altera’s New Dual ARM® Cortex™-A9 SoC Arria® and Cyclone® V FPGA Families
by Daniel Nenni on 01-03-2012 at 7:29 pm

Altera recently introduced versions of their new Arria® and Cyclone® V FPGA families that incorporates a dual ARM®Cortex™-A9 MPCore hard core. These parts are particularly interesting to NARD as it’s consistent with the NARD concept of offering platforms unified by a common ARM® host core and a variety of controller/coprocessor… Read More