In the early 1980s the ideas and infrastructure for what would eventually be called ASIC started to come together. Semiconductor technology had reached the point that a useful number of transistors could be put onto a chip. But unlike earlier, when a chip only held a few transistors and thus could be used to create basic generic building… Read More
U.S. Electronics Production GrowingU.S. electronics production has been on an accelerating…Read More
Inference Acceleration from the Ground UpVSORA, a pioneering high-tech company, has engineered a…Read More
AI-Driven DRC Productivity Optimization: Revolutionizing Semiconductor DesignThe semiconductor industry is undergoing a transformative shift…Read More
Emulator-Like Simulation Acceleration on GPUs. Innovation in VerificationGPUs have been proposed before to accelerate logic…Read More
Pioneering Edge AI: TekStart's Cognitum Processor Ushers in a New Era of Efficient IntelligenceOne of the more in interesting companies I…Read MoreA Brief History of Mentor Graphics
In 1981, Pac-Man was sweeping the nation, the first space shuttle launched, and a small group of engineers in Oregon started not only a new company (Mentor Graphics), but an entirely new industry, electronic design automation (EDA).
Mentor founders Tom Bruggere, Gerry Langeler, and Dave Moffenbeier left Tektronix with a great… Read More
The Business Case for Algorithmic Memories
Economic considerations are a primary driver in determining which technology solutions will be selected, and how they will be implemented in a company’s design environment. In the process of developing Memoir’s Algorithmic Memory technology and our Renaissance product line, we have held fast to two basic premises: Our technology… Read More
MemCon 2012: Cadence and Denali
I was very happy to see that Cadence has decided to hold MEMCON again in 2012, in Santa Clara on September 18[SUP]th[/SUP] . The session will start with “New Memory Technologies and Disruptions in the Ecosystem”from Martin Lund.
Martin is the recently (March this year) appointed Senior VP for the SoC Realization Group at cadence:… Read More
A Brief History of SoCs
Interesting to note; our cell phones today have more computing power than NASA had for the first landing on the moon. The insides of these mobile devices that we can’t live without are not like personal computers or even laptops with a traditional CPU (central processing unit) and a dozen other support chips. The brain, heart, and… Read More
Ex ante: disclose IP before, not after standardization
Many of the audience here are involved in standards bodies and specification development, so the news from the Apple v. Samsung on the invocation of ex ante in today’s testimony is useful.
I worked with VITA, the folks behind the VME family of board-level embedded technology, on their ex ante policy several years ago, and … Read More
I/O Bandwidth with Tensilica Cores
It is obviously a truism that somewhere in an SoC there is something limiting a further increase in performance. One area where this is especially noticeable is when a Tensilica core is used to create a highly optimized processor for some purpose. The core performance may be boosted by a factor of 10 or even as much as 100. Once the core… Read More
What’s Next For Emerging Memories
In doing some digging in preparation for the start of www.ReRAM-Forum.com Christie Marrian asks if ReRAM.CBRAM technology is approaching a ‘tipping point’ relative to NAND Flash. You can read more of his analysis over at the blog he moderates (ReRAM-Forum.com). Also a note to readers. The blog is interested in collecting new … Read More
2012 semiconductor market decline likely
The worldwide semiconductor market in 2Q 2012 was $73.1 billion, according to WSTS data released by the SIA. 2Q 2012 was up 4.7% from 1Q 2012 but down 2.0% from 2Q 2011. Major semiconductor companies are generally expecting slower revenue growth in 3Q 2012 versus 2Q 2012. The table below shows revenue estimates for calendar 3Q 2012… Read More
The Generational Legacy of Steve Jobs
Truly great leaders are recognized by the impact they leave several generations down the road. Roosevelt and Churchill are two historical figures who together saved Western Civilization, thus leaving a tremendous legacy even now, two generations later. In the semiconductor world we mark our generations in the two-year cadence… Read More


Intel to Compete with Broadcom and Marvell in the Lucrative ASIC Business