The semiconductor industry is experiencing a significant transformation with the advent of chiplet design, a modular approach that breaks down complex chips into smaller, functional blocks called chiplets. A chiplet-based design approach offers numerous advantages, such as improved performance, reduced development … Read More
Building a better mousetrap plays a key role in achieving market success in any industry. Of course, building one requires differentiating the product from the others already in the market. A differentiated product can even lead to creating demand for new products in adjacent markets. All of this is great but how do you implement… Read More
As many of you know Bitcoin prices have surged recently up to $40,000 USD per bitcoin as of February 2021. We are in the middle of a bit rush! People are noticing Bitcoin’s surge and wondering how they can profit from it. In this article we will explore how custom silicon is a vital part of a winning bitcoin mining strategy.
Some… Read More
This article about verification is part 2 of a two article series. Please see part 1 on validation HERE.
Verification is a field that has emerged as its own discipline. It’s no longer being relegated to an activity led by the design team to which time is allocated as long as it doesn’t get in the way of designing. Chip companies… Read More
I will address this topic with two blog posts: validation (i.e. post silicon) — Part 1, and verification (pre-silicon) — Part 2 (coming soon!). In this blog post, I will focus on validation.
One of the upsides of using catalog chips that have been in the market for a long time and have ramped in substantial volumes is that… Read More
Every so often a custom silicon socket comes up at a system company that you simply cannot afford to lose if you’re a silicon supplier. These are the types of custom silicon sockets that last for generations of a product, in huge and predictable volumes, and for whatever reason they may become available. It’s not easy to predict… Read More
Probably the least appreciated and most critical thing I spend my time on when driving custom silicon projects is setting up the entire framework to get everyone talking and in rhythm with each other. Only supplier selection is more critical to the project’s success than this.
All system custom silicon projects where the… Read More
I used to be part of the custom silicon management team at Apple. I’ve seen how great a challenge it is to pull off a custom silicon strategy within a one year product cycle. Apple is the perfect example of this custom silicon model since they develop the best mobile processors in the world for their products. Which also includes other… Read More
Since its formation just last year, SiFive has been riding the RISC-V rocket from purely academic interest to first commercialization. In an exclusive discussion, I talked with CEO Stefan Dyckerhoff and VP of Product and Business Development Jack Kang about their progress so far and what may be coming next.
Previously, I covered… Read More
