Podcast EP3: Tomorrow’s Semiconductors with Jim Hogan

Podcast EP3: Tomorrow’s Semiconductors with Jim Hogan
by Daniel Nenni on 01-15-2021 at 10:00 am

Dan and Mike are joined by industry luminary Jim Hogan. In a rare interview, Jim talks about his life – how he got into semiconductors, EDA and venture investing. Jim’s time at Cadence as well as his work at ARM are explored. Jim also provides a concise and informative overview of how venture investing works. The podcast… Read More


SkillCAD Adds Powerful Editing Commands to Virtuoso

SkillCAD Adds Powerful Editing Commands to Virtuoso
by Tom Simon on 11-02-2020 at 10:00 am

SKillCAD Creating a Metal Bus

Despite the large role of place and route in IC design, there will always be a need for custom layout design. This is particularly true in radio frequency (RF), power management (PM) and power amplifier (PA) circuits, among others. Cadence Virtuoso is by far the leading tool for creating these custom designs. Virtuoso has a sophisticated… Read More


The Most Interesting CEO in Semiconductors!

The Most Interesting CEO in Semiconductors!
by Daniel Nenni on 10-21-2020 at 6:00 am

GTC 2020 Lip Bu Tan

Hands down, without a doubt, the most interesting CEO in semiconductors is Lip-Bu Tan, founder of Walden Capitol and current CEO of Cadence Design Systems. If you want to talk about a man with a plan it’s Lip-Bu Tan.

Before we get into the fireside chat between Tom Caufield and Lip-Bu at the GTC 2020 Virtual event let’s do a quick biography:… Read More


Tempus: Delivering Faster Timing Signoff with Optimal PPA

Tempus: Delivering Faster Timing Signoff with Optimal PPA
by Mike Gianfagna on 10-12-2020 at 10:00 am

Tempus Delivering Faster Timing Signoff with Optimal PPA

In July, I explored the benefits of the new Cadence Tempus™ Power Integrity Solution. In that piece, I explored some of the unique capabilities of this new tool with Brandon Bautz, senior product management group director and Hitendra Divecha, product management director in the Digital & Signoff Group at Cadence. I recently… Read More


HCL Offers Tightly Integrated Design Management Solution for Virtuoso

HCL Offers Tightly Integrated Design Management Solution for Virtuoso
by Tom Simon on 05-18-2020 at 6:00 am

Flexium for Virtuoso

The road to a truly usable design management solution for electronic design has been a long and twisty one. Initially just handling EDA tool data was a struggle, let alone addressing mutli-user and multi-site needs. Of course, all along every EDA tool development company was internally using software revision control, which … Read More


How does TensorFlow Lite on Tensilica HiFi DSP IP Sound?

How does TensorFlow Lite on Tensilica HiFi DSP IP Sound?
by Tom Simon on 04-22-2020 at 6:00 am

TensorFlow Lite Needed for Audio

In all the hubbub about AI/ML, it’s easy to see why visual ML gets more attention. It’s got appeal because of applications such as autonomous driving. Because of this it’s easy to overlook the importance of audio ML. I own a Tesla and putting it into autopilot is very cool, but even it has voice recognition built in as an important feature… Read More


IBIS-AMI Back-Channel System Optimization in Practice

IBIS-AMI Back-Channel System Optimization in Practice
by Mike Gianfagna on 02-18-2020 at 6:00 am

Picture1 1

I recently spent some time at DesignCon 2020 in Santa Clara. For those who haven’t attended this show in a while, you need to go. It’s no longer a small event focused on chip design. It has grown into a true system-level conference, with a broad ecosystem represented on the show floor and in the technical sessions. Ecosystem is an important… Read More


AI Interposer Power Modeling and HBM Power Noise Prediction Studies

AI Interposer Power Modeling and HBM Power Noise Prediction Studies
by Mike Gianfagna on 02-07-2020 at 6:00 am

Picture1

I attended a session on 2.5D silicon interposer analysis at DesignCon 2020. Like many presentations at this show, ecosystem collaboration was a focus. In this session, Jinsong Hu (principal application engineer at Cadence) and Yongsong He (senior staff engineer at Enflame Tech) presented approaches for interposer power modeling… Read More


Signal Channel Design and Simulation for Silicon Interposer Packaging on High-Speed SerDes

Signal Channel Design and Simulation for Silicon Interposer Packaging on High-Speed SerDes
by Mike Gianfagna on 02-04-2020 at 10:00 am

Picture2

This year is the 25th anniversary for DesignCon.  The show has changed a lot over the years. Today, it’s a vibrant showcase of all aspects of advanced product design – from ICs to boards to systems. The show floor reflects the diverse ecosystem. If you missed it this year, definitely plan to go next year.

The DesignCon technical program… Read More


Photonics Come into Focus: 2020 Predictions

Photonics Come into Focus: 2020 Predictions
by Rich Goldman on 01-02-2020 at 10:00 am

Photonics 2020 Predictions

In the past, I’ve focused my annual predictions on electronics – ICs and EDA – but recently I’ve turned my focus to photonics, so my 2020 predictions are primarily in this area.

Historically, photonics has been the Gallium Arsenide of technologies; it was, is and always will be the technology of the future. Analysts have forever … Read More