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2011 Semiconductor Design Forecast: Partly Cloudy!

2011 Semiconductor Design Forecast: Partly Cloudy!
by Daniel Nenni on 03-29-2011 at 11:39 am

This was my first SNUG (Synopsys User Group) meeting as media so it was a ground breaking event. Media was still barred from some of the sessions but hey, it’s a start. The most blog worthy announcement on day 1 was that Synopsys signed a deal with Amazon to bring the cloud to mainstream EDA!

Even more blog worthy was a media roundtable… Read More


Dawn at the OASIS, Dusk for GDSII

Dawn at the OASIS, Dusk for GDSII
by Beth Martin on 03-28-2011 at 1:53 pm

For an industry committed to constant innovation, changes in any part of the design flow are only slowly adopted, and only when absolutely necessary. Almost 10 years ago, it became clear that shrinking process technologies would bring a massive growth of layout and mask data—rougly 50% per node. This avalanche of data seriously… Read More


ARM and GlobalFoundries

ARM and GlobalFoundries
by Eric Esteve on 03-25-2011 at 9:49 am


Although there has been always a strong relationship between ARM and GlobalFoundries, it is interesting to notice that Intel has helped to boost it and make it even stronger. Indeed when AMD renegotiated its x86 licensing deal with Intel in 2009, one of the most significant long-term changes was a marked reduction in how much of
Read More


Process Design Kits: PDKs, iPDKs, openPDKs

Process Design Kits: PDKs, iPDKs, openPDKs
by Paul McLellan on 03-24-2011 at 5:28 pm

One of the first things that needs to be created when bringing up a new process is the Process Design Kit, or PDK. Years ago, back when I was running the custom IC business line at Cadence, we had a dominant position with the Virtuoso layout editor and so creating a PDK really meant creating a Virtuoso PDK, and it was a fairly straightforward… Read More


Evolution of Lithography Process Models, Part II

Evolution of Lithography Process Models, Part II
by Beth Martin on 03-24-2011 at 3:56 pm

In part I of this series, we looked at the history of lithography process models, starting in 1976. Some technologies born in that era, like the Concorde and the space shuttle, came to the end of their roads. Others did indeed grow and develop, such as the technologies for mobile computing and home entertainment. And lithography … Read More


Hardware Configuration Management and why it’s different than Software Configuration Management

Hardware Configuration Management and why it’s different than Software Configuration Management
by Daniel Payne on 03-23-2011 at 2:51 pm

Intro
On Friday I talked with Srinath Anantharaman by phone to gain some perspective on Hardware Configuration Management (HCM) versus Software Configuration Management (SCM), especially as it applies to the IC design flows in use today. In the 1990’s we both worked at Viewlogic in Fremont, CA and in 1997 Srinath founded… Read More


ARM vs Intel…Performance? Power? OS support? Or ubiquity?

ARM vs Intel…Performance? Power? OS support? Or ubiquity?
by Eric Esteve on 03-22-2011 at 2:18 pm

This blog was posted 10 months ago, and the comments have made it much more interesting! Don’t miss the various comments at the back. Also feel free to let us know if you think the status, in this ARM vs Intel “war” has changed a lot since March 2011. Do you really think Intel has catch up with ARM in the mobile industry?Read More


RTL Power Analysis and Verification

RTL Power Analysis and Verification
by Paul McLellan on 03-22-2011 at 11:13 am

“Power is the new timing” has almost become a cliché. There are a number of reasons for this, not least that increasingly it is power rather than anything else that caps the performance that a given system can deliver. Power is obviously very important in portable applications such as smartphones because it shows through directly… Read More


Semiconductor Industry Damage Assessment (Disaster in Japan)

Semiconductor Industry Damage Assessment (Disaster in Japan)
by admin on 03-19-2011 at 5:19 am

The earthquake and subsequent tsunami that devastated Japan on March 11[SUP]th[/SUP], 2011 will have far reaching ramifications around the world for years to come. People have asked me how this disaster will affect the semiconductor industry so I will try and summarize it in this blog.

First the foundries:

According to TSMC: Read More


How much IP & reuse in this SoC?

How much IP & reuse in this SoC?
by Eric Esteve on 03-17-2011 at 10:12 am

According with the survey from GSA-Wharton design IP blocks reuse in a new IC product is 44% in average. Looking at the latest Wireless platform from TI, OMAP5, we have listed the blocks which have been (or will be) reused, coming from internal (or external) IP sourcing. For a license cost evaluation of -at least- $10M!

For those whoRead More