Dan Niles Economic Review: Q1 is the Bottom

Dan Niles Economic Review: Q1 is the Bottom
by Paul McLellan on 03-29-2013 at 7:38 pm

Every quarter GSA runs a webinar with Dan Niles of Alpha One Capital Partners on what the semiconductor outlook is. He doesn’t actually focus on the semiconductor industry itself, demand for chips is really driven by economic conditions in the major markets around the world. People who are unemployed, or in Cyprus, don’t… Read More


Design Automation Conference: Go For It!

Design Automation Conference: Go For It!
by Paul McLellan on 03-29-2013 at 5:35 pm

The conference program for DAC is now live here including the conference itself, keynotes, some other special tracks, the pavilion panels and more. And the must-see panel is on emulation at 4pm on Tuesday afternoon moderated by…well, that would be me so I’m a bit biased.

Registration is now open here for both attendees… Read More


Mentor at TSMC Technology Symposium

Mentor at TSMC Technology Symposium
by glforte on 03-29-2013 at 11:41 am

TSMC will host their annual technology symposium at several locations in the U.S. on April 9th in San Jose, April 16th in Austin, and April 23rd in Boston. TSMC will discuss the market outlook, design enablement, and technology for high-speed computing, mobile communications, connectivity and storage, CIS, embedded flash, … Read More


TSMC on Collaboration: JIT Ecosystem Development

TSMC on Collaboration: JIT Ecosystem Development
by Paul McLellan on 03-27-2013 at 2:02 pm

Cliff Hou of TSMC gave the keynote today at SNUG on Collaborate to Innovate: a Foundry’s Perspective. Starting around 45nm the way that a foundry has to work with its ecosystem fundamentally changed. Up until then, each process generation was similar enough to the previous one, apart obviously from size, that it could be … Read More


Will 14nm Yield?

Will 14nm Yield?
by Daniel Nenni on 03-26-2013 at 9:00 pm

If I had a nickel for every time I heard the term “FinFET” at the 2013 SNUG (Synopsys User Group) Conference I could buy a dozen Venti Carmel Frappuccinos at Starbucks (my daughter’s favorite treat). In the keynote, Aart de Geus said FinFET 14 times and posed the question: Will FinFETs Yield at 14nm? So that was my mission, ask everybody… Read More


Moore Push Versus Market Pull

Moore Push Versus Market Pull
by Paul McLellan on 03-25-2013 at 5:55 pm

I was at SNUG earlier today at both Aart’s keynote that opened the conference and at his “meet the press” Q&A just before lunch. The keynote was entitled Bridges to the Gigascale Decade. And the presentation certainly contained lots of photos of bridges! Anyway, I’m going to focus on just one thing,… Read More


New ways for High Frequency Analysis of IC Layouts

New ways for High Frequency Analysis of IC Layouts
by Pawan Fangaria on 03-25-2013 at 5:30 pm

Amidst frequently changing requirements, time pressure and demand for high accuracy, it is imperative that EDA and design companies look at time consuming processes in the overall design flow and find alternatives without losing accuracy. High Frequency Analysis of IC designs is one such process which is traditionally based… Read More


Can Samsung Deliver As Promised?

Can Samsung Deliver As Promised?
by Daniel Nenni on 03-24-2013 at 8:01 pm

Samsung’s aggressive marketing is starting to hit the fabless semiconductor ecosystem so we had all better be prepared. Samsung’s 2012 marketing budget exceeded $400M which probably beats the marketing budget of the entire fabless ecosystem! The question is, will the fabless semiconductor industry be easily swayed by Samsung’s… Read More


Mixed-Signal SoC verification has integrated solution

Mixed-Signal SoC verification has integrated solution
by Pawan Fangaria on 03-21-2013 at 8:10 pm

These days when we talk of SoC verification, what comes to our mind immediately is VirtualPlatform. Of course with the increasing size, complexity and different styles of designs, it is very much a need.

However, that is supported by actual verification engines and methodologies which are varying considerable with digital, … Read More