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Economic news not all bad for semiconductors

Economic news not all bad for semiconductors
by Bill Jewell on 08-30-2011 at 2:06 pm



The economic news lately has been bleak. U.S. GDP grew at an anemic 0.4% in 1Q 2011 and 1.0% in 2Q 2011 – leading to increased concerns about a double-dip recession. High government debt levels in the U.S. and several European nations have contributed to volatile stock markets. The news does not seem to be any better for the semiconductorRead More


Apple’s $399 Plan to Win Consumer Market in Summer 2012

Apple’s $399 Plan to Win Consumer Market in Summer 2012
by Ed McKernan on 08-30-2011 at 10:30 am

The complete destruction of the consumer PC market in the US and Europe is well within Apple’s grasp and will begin to unfold next summer. There is nothing that Intel, Microsoft or the retail channels can do to hold back the tsunami that was first set in motion with the iPad last year and comes to completion with the introduction of one… Read More


Nanometer Circuit Verification Forum

Nanometer Circuit Verification Forum
by Daniel Nenni on 08-29-2011 at 2:33 pm

Verifying circuits on advanced process nodes has always been difficult, and it’s no easier with today’s nanometer CMOS processes. There’s a great paradox in nanometer circuit design and verification. Designers achieve their greatest differentiation when they implement analog, mixed-signal, RF and custom … Read More


Semiconductor Yield @ 28nm HKMG!

Semiconductor Yield @ 28nm HKMG!
by Daniel Nenni on 08-28-2011 at 4:00 pm

Whether you use a gate-first or gate-last High-k Metal Gate implementation, yield will be your #1 concern at 28nm, which makes variation analysis and verification a big challenge. One of the consulting projects I have been working on with the foundries and top fabless semiconductor companies is High-Sigma Monte Carlo (HSMC) … Read More


Layout for analog/mixed-signal nanometer ICs

Layout for analog/mixed-signal nanometer ICs
by Paul McLellan on 08-26-2011 at 5:24 pm

Analog has always been difficult, a bit of a black art persuading a digital process to create well-behaved analog circuits, capacitors, resistors and all the rest. In the distant past, we would solve this by putting the analog on a separate chip, often in a non-leading-edge process. But modern SoCs integrate large amounts of digital… Read More


Will AMD and Samsung Battle Intel and Micron?

Will AMD and Samsung Battle Intel and Micron?
by Ed McKernan on 08-26-2011 at 2:00 pm

We received some good feedback from our article on Intel’s Back to the Future Buy of Micron and I thought I would present another story line that gives readers a better perspective of what may be possibly coming down the road. In this case, it is the story of AMD and Samsung partnering to counter Intel’s platform play with Micron. The… Read More


Transistor Level IC Design?

Transistor Level IC Design?
by Daniel Payne on 08-26-2011 at 1:23 pm

If you are doing transistor-level IC design then you’ve probably come up against questions like:

  • What Changed in this schematic sheet?
  • How did my IC layout change since last week?

In the old days we would hold up the old and new versions of the schematics or IC layout and try to eye-ball what had changed. Now we have an automated… Read More


Third Generation DFM Flow: GLOBALFOUNDRIES and Mentor Graphics

Third Generation DFM Flow: GLOBALFOUNDRIES and Mentor Graphics
by Daniel Payne on 08-26-2011 at 11:17 am

calibre yield analyzer

Introduction
Mentor Graphics and GLOBALFOUNDRIES have been working together for several generations since the 65nm node on making IC designs yield higher. Michael Buehler-Garcia, director of Calibre Design SolutionsMarketing at Mentor Graphics spoke with me by phone today to explain how they are working with GLOBALFOUNDRIESRead More


Mentor catapults Calypto

Mentor catapults Calypto
by Paul McLellan on 08-26-2011 at 10:36 am

Mentor has transferred its Catapult (high level synthesis) product line, including the people, to Calypto. Terms were not disclosed but apparently it is a non-cash deal. Calypto gets the product line. Mentor gets a big chunk of ownership of Calypto. So maybe the right way to look at this is as a partial acquisition of Calypto.

It … Read More


20nm SoC Design

20nm SoC Design
by Paul McLellan on 08-25-2011 at 12:48 am

There are a large number of challenges at 20nm that didn’t exist at 45nm or even 32nm.

The biggest issues are in the lithography area. Until now it has been possible to make a reticle using advanced reticle enhacement technology (RET) decoration and have it print. Amazing when you think that at 45nm we are making 45nm features… Read More