Welcome, LPDDR4!

Welcome, LPDDR4!
by Eric Esteve on 04-23-2014 at 3:46 am

Thanks to memory controller expert Marc Greenberg, Marketing Director for DDRn Controller IP with Synopsys, for this post “Qualcomm announces first application processor with LPDDR4 capability”. According with Marc, this Application Processor, the Snapdragon 810, is “the first product that I’m aware of that will use LPDDR4… Read More


How Qualcomm crushed the mobile roadmap

How Qualcomm crushed the mobile roadmap
by Don Dingee on 04-09-2014 at 1:00 pm

Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 810 announcement this week may seem like just another mondo-core SoC on a way-cool TSMC 20nm advanced process. Looking past the technology shows an understated genius in creating a roadmap – and why yours and most everyone else’s probably sucks.… Read More


The (re)making of Arteris, 1-2-3

The (re)making of Arteris, 1-2-3
by Don Dingee on 03-06-2014 at 6:00 pm

Success in a business with extended design-in cycles may look easy. In reality, there is a delicate balance between many factors. Some come to mind immediately: developing and releasing a good product in the first place; winning and keeping the right customers, not too few or too many; balancing investment between support and … Read More


Dr. Walden Rhines Vision on Semiconductor & India

Dr. Walden Rhines Vision on Semiconductor & India
by Pawan Fangaria on 03-04-2014 at 11:00 am

Last month India Electronics & Semiconductor Association (IESA) held its Vision Summit at Bangalore in which luminaries from across the semiconductor and electronics industry presented their views about the future of this industry and India’s progress. Dr. Walden C. Rhines, Chairman and CEO of Mentor Graphicspresented… Read More


Gobi, the Jewel in Qualcomm’s Crown

Gobi, the Jewel in Qualcomm’s Crown
by Paul McLellan on 03-01-2014 at 5:19 pm

Back in the 1990s in the middle of the 2G GSM era, cell-phone manufacturers would display a “triangle of difficulty” with a large base labeled radio, a middle smaller part labeled baseband and a little triangle on top labelled software. The idea was that the radio was incredibly difficult, then the baseband chip and… Read More


Skate to where the mobile puck is headed, Intel

Skate to where the mobile puck is headed, Intel
by Don Dingee on 02-24-2014 at 5:00 pm

Mobile World Congress 2014 has already showcased two very different mobile SoC machines in high gear. After watching one big US moment and Canada otherwise dominate everything involving ice and a stick at the Sochi Olympics, I’m reaching into the Wayne Gretzky pile of quotes for a metaphor to examine Intel’s move – and why they are… Read More


ASTC and the new midrange ARM Mali-T720 GPU

ASTC and the new midrange ARM Mali-T720 GPU
by Don Dingee on 02-11-2014 at 3:00 pm

When we last visited texture compression technology for OpenGL ES on mobile GPUs, we mentioned Squish image quality results in passing, but weren’t able to explore a key technology at the top of the results. With today’s introduction of the ARM Mali-T720 GPU IP, let’s look at the texture compression technology inside: Adaptive… Read More


A Brief History of Qualcomm

A Brief History of Qualcomm
by Paul McLellan on 01-29-2014 at 12:48 pm

Qualcomm is the largest fabless semiconductor company in the world. If you have a smarphone there is a good chance you have a Qualcomm chip in your pocket. It is headquartered in San Diego with offices pretty much everywhere.

Qualcomm’s roots are in Linkabit, which was founded by Irwin Jacobs and Andrew Viterbi. They, along with … Read More


The Changing Semiconductor Foundry Landscape!

The Changing Semiconductor Foundry Landscape!
by Daniel Nenni on 01-29-2014 at 8:00 am

The foundry landscape is changing again and it is definitely something that should be discussed. There are some people, mostly influenced by Intel, that feel the foundry business has hit the wall at 20nm which couldn’t be further from the truth. After spending 30 years working in Silicon Valley, I have experienced a lot of change… Read More


SilabTech Awarded 2013 Best Start-up in India

SilabTech Awarded 2013 Best Start-up in India
by Eric Esteve on 01-20-2014 at 8:32 am

This is obviously great news for SilabTech, and this is the type of news which will change the perception that we (non-Indian) have of the Semiconductor industry in India. About 15-20 years ago, the India Embedded/VLSI industry was perceived as low cost design resource pool, a good place where to implement design center. The hidden… Read More