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The Future of Semiconductor Design!

The Future of Semiconductor Design!
by Daniel Nenni on 12-26-2010 at 10:15 pm

Is EDA still an appropriate term for what we do? What applications will drive future semiconductor design innovation? Will further consolidation be required for EDA to thrive again? They are all good questions, questions that will hopefully be properly addressed at the EDAC CEO Forecast and Industry Vision event next week but… Read More


Semiconductor and EDA Forecasts 2011 / 2012

Semiconductor and EDA Forecasts 2011 / 2012
by Daniel Nenni on 12-19-2010 at 5:25 pm


Of course these are rolling forecasts which means they change every month, until they get them right. The missing forecaster here is Mike Cowen, developer of the Cowan LRA Model which forecasts global semiconductor sales. Mike has 2011 at a hilarious 2.3%! Below are the mid year market forecasts which were revised significantlyRead More


Mentor – Cadence Merger and the Federal Trade Commission

Mentor – Cadence Merger and the Federal Trade Commission
by Daniel Nenni on 12-12-2010 at 5:33 pm


More consolidation is coming to EDA and so is the Federal Trade Commission. Corporate raider Carl Ichan owns 15% of Mentor Graphics and now owns 1% of Cadence. Ichan buddy multi billionaire George Soros, a long time CDNS investor, just purchased more than 76 million convertible notes of MENT.You do the math…

Unfortunately the FTC… Read More


Webinar on Accelerating Analog Layout Productivity

Webinar on Accelerating Analog Layout Productivity
by Daniel Payne on 12-08-2010 at 11:58 pm

MONROVIA, California – December 7, 2010 – With pressure to reduce time to market and with resources increasingly constrained, tools that can enable maximum productivity for analog and mixed-signal design are mission-critical. Tanner EDA, the catalyst for innovation for the design, layout and verification of analog and mixed-signal… Read More


TSMC vs GlobalFoundries IBM Samsung

TSMC vs GlobalFoundries IBM Samsung
by Daniel Nenni on 12-05-2010 at 9:52 pm


GlobalFoundries has brought the Common Platform Alliance back from the dead!?!?!?! Good thing too as it is probably their most comprehensive weapon against TSMC and answers the single biggest question customers have at 28nm and that is; Will there be enough CAPACITY?

The Common Platform technology alliance hosted its first-ever… Read More


Intel versus ARM (Linaro)

Intel versus ARM (Linaro)
by Daniel Nenni on 11-28-2010 at 11:35 am

More than 2,500 companies will be exhibiting and more than 120,000 people will be attending the next Consumer Electronics Show(CES) and it is an easy bet that ARM processors will dominate the show yet again. In fact, my money is on ARM to dominate future generations of computing platforms (smartphones) due in large part to one simple… Read More


Tanner EDA Then and Now

Tanner EDA Then and Now
by Daniel Payne on 11-26-2010 at 9:44 pm

tanner then now


Looking back at an early issue of a Tanner Research newsletter, “Tanner Tools News”, from the mid-1990s, the theme at that time was growth, just as it is again now for Tanner EDA. At that time we were averaging 66% revenue growth per year, enjoying rapid growth as a small start-up. Fast-forward to current day, where we… Read More


Mentor Acquires Magma?

Mentor Acquires Magma?
by Daniel Nenni on 11-21-2010 at 5:39 pm

**This blog was written a year ago. Several people emailed me last week saying Mentor is trying for Magma again so I thought I would run it again to see what we can find out!D.A.N. 11/21/2011

“I believe that within five years only two EDA companies will survive,” said Magma Design Automation Rajeev Madhavan (Silicom Ventures LLC internationalRead More


Russian Silicon Valley

Russian Silicon Valley
by Daniel Nenni on 11-14-2010 at 6:22 pm

In case you missed it, last June Dmitry Medvedev (the 3[SUP]rd[/SUP] President of Russia) visited Northern California to better understand and hopefully replicate the success of Silicon Valley in Russia. Last month Governor Schwarzenegger returned the favor by visiting Moscow with a delegate of Silicon Valley business leaders… Read More


TSMC Versus Intel?

TSMC Versus Intel?
by Daniel Nenni on 11-07-2010 at 7:18 pm


The big announcement last week was Intel opening up its 22nm manufacturing facilities to an outside company. Even better it’s an FPGA company. There are literally hundreds of write ups on this landmark event so it is definitely blog worthy. But what does it really mean? I have read (5) possibilities:

(1) Intel enters the FPGA businessRead More