Big Data, the Cloud and the Internet of (Silicon) Things

Big Data, the Cloud and the Internet of (Silicon) Things
by Paul McLellan on 08-31-2014 at 7:01 am

Next week, eSilicon are kicking off a very widespread survey to measure some important semiconductor design and manufacturing challenges. Their goal is to measure customer sentiment regarding how Big Data, the Cloud and the Internet can impact these challenges. But here’s a secret, the survey is already live and you can… Read More


Granite River Labs and TSMC Expand Agreement

Granite River Labs and TSMC Expand Agreement
by Paul McLellan on 08-28-2014 at 7:01 am

For several years now, TSMC has run increasingly sophisticated IP validation. Ramping a new process as a foundry requires a number of things to all come together almost simultaneously: the process, of course, and some designs to run and start to recover the huge capital investment a modern fab entails. With many SoCs having over… Read More


eSilicon and the Ten Minute Quote

eSilicon and the Ten Minute Quote
by Paul McLellan on 08-01-2014 at 8:01 am

One of the challenges in bringing a design into production is getting a quote that includes all the various stages of the process. The quote cycle typically takes a couple of weeks. It is also pretty wasteful. A typical design might be quoted by 3 manufacturers and so 2 out of 3 quotes are wasted expense because the design is lost to a … Read More


eSilicon and IDT Collaborate on Next-generation RapidIO Switches

eSilicon and IDT Collaborate on Next-generation RapidIO Switches
by Paul McLellan on 07-18-2014 at 9:01 am

Earlier in the week, eSilicon and IDT announced a collaboration to accelerate development of next-generation RapidIO switches. These are used to meet the higher performance demands required for new wireless, embedded and computing infrastructures. The two companies will initially work together to develop RapidIO switches… Read More


GlobalFoundries: Upcoming Events

GlobalFoundries: Upcoming Events
by Paul McLellan on 07-11-2014 at 9:01 am

GlobalFoundries is running a series of technical seminars in the US and Europe, following on from the successful versions run last month in Shanghai and Hsinchu. Among the topics that will be discussed are Foundry 2.0 and Collaborative Device Manufacturing for both Leading Edge and Mainstream technologies. The European events… Read More


Mark Adams Keynote at #semiconwest

Mark Adams Keynote at #semiconwest
by Paul McLellan on 07-09-2014 at 12:58 pm

The first surprise of the opening keynote for Semicon West was on the slides that were cycling on the screen as the room filled up. Somehow our book Fabless had managed to be in the rotation.

The opening keynote was by Mark Adams, the President of Micron. He was talking about upcoming big changes in the semiconductor environment, although… Read More


GlobalFoundries Goes to Semicon West

GlobalFoundries Goes to Semicon West
by Paul McLellan on 07-04-2014 at 8:38 pm

Next week it is Semicon West, the big equipment vendor tradeshow. I love to go since EDA and semiconductor and all the stuff we are interested in here at Semiwiki are driven by equipment capabilities, especially lithography. The highest viewed blogs I write tend to be ones on technologies that are just a bit out beyond the stuff people… Read More


GDS II Online for TSMC

GDS II Online for TSMC
by Paul McLellan on 06-12-2014 at 4:00 pm

I just watched an interesting video of a demonstration at DAC of the eSilicon GDS II online quote for TSMC. Actually, it wasn’t so much as a demonstration as an interactive use of the quote tool using data supplied by a member of the audience.

The quote system works for TSMC processes from 28nm up to 350nm. The design the audience… Read More


Virtual Fabrication: Not just for fabs. Fabless companies can benefit from more visibility into process technology

Virtual Fabrication: Not just for fabs. Fabless companies can benefit from more visibility into process technology
by Pawan Fangaria on 05-19-2014 at 7:30 pm

Ever since I started talking about Virtual Fabrication I have mostly looked at it from the manufacturers’ perspective, where it has obvious benefits to develop and model new process technology. But what about the fabless design concept and indeed even the semiconductor IP world that has spawned from it as well? It seems that Virtual… Read More