Blackberry Reboot Nears Completion

Blackberry Reboot Nears Completion
by Roger C. Lanctot on 02-18-2018 at 12:00 pm

Jalopnik’s report that car maker Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) had experienced a failed software update that had thrown the infotainment systems in some MY 2017-18 vehicles into a never-ending cycle of rebooting was a reminder that cars are indeed becoming smartphones on wheels. Blackberry CEO John Chen has no doubtsRead More


Qualcomm Continues to Mislead its Own Stockholders

Qualcomm Continues to Mislead its Own Stockholders
by Daniel Nenni on 02-12-2018 at 7:00 am

The war of words continues between Broadcom and Qualcomm and the stock analysts still seem to be split on the merger. Please note that Broadcom is proposing to merge with Qualcomm instead of a tender offer which is what Qualcomm has proposed for the acquisition on NXP. Same result but two very different approaches. Another interesting… Read More


Broadcom Versus Qualcomm Update

Broadcom Versus Qualcomm Update
by Daniel Nenni on 01-15-2018 at 7:00 am

The Broadcom acquiring Qualcomm drama is still dominating the fabless semiconductor back channel. This week I will be at the SEMI ISS Conference with Scott Jones and several hundred high level semiconductor professionals so it will be interesting to hear the hallway chatter. When it was first announced I was in the minority in … Read More


System Level Formal

System Level Formal
by Bernard Murphy on 01-09-2018 at 7:00 am

Two recently announced vulnerabilities in major processor platforms should remind us that bugs don’t organize themselves to appear only in domains we know how to test comprehensively. Both Meltdown and Spectre (the announced problems) are potential hardware system-level issues allowed by interactions between speculative… Read More


Qualcomm’s New Spectra ISP and Camera Modules Enable Nextgen AR

Qualcomm’s New Spectra ISP and Camera Modules Enable Nextgen AR
by Patrick Moorhead on 01-03-2018 at 12:00 pm

The mobile VR and AR space has been evolving rapidly, with many different players innovating in recent months. Companies like Apple and Google have been innovating on the software and hardware front, but others have been working diligently to support some of these efforts as well. One of those companies is Qualcomm with their supportRead More


2017 in Review and 2018 Forecast

2017 in Review and 2018 Forecast
by Daniel Nenni on 12-30-2017 at 7:00 am

This has been an amazing year for me both personally and professionally. Personally we are now empty nest and have our first grandchild. SemiWiki is prospering, a company that I have been involved with for ten years (Solido Design) had a very nice exit, and my time promoting semiconductor stocks to Wall Street paid off with the PHLXRead More


HLS Rising

HLS Rising
by Bernard Murphy on 12-26-2017 at 7:00 am

No-one could accuse Badru Agarwala, GM of the Mentor/Siemens Calypto Division, of being tentative about high-level synthesis. (HLS). Then again, he and a few others around the industry have been selling this story for quite a while, apparently to a small and not always attentive audience. But times seem to be changing. I’ve written… Read More


Networking and Formal Verification

Networking and Formal Verification
by Bernard Murphy on 12-19-2017 at 7:00 am

I attended Oski’s latest Decoding Formal event a couple of weeks ago and again enjoyed a largely customer-centric view of the problems to which they apply formal, and their experiences in making it work for them (with Oski help of course). From an admittedly limited sample of two of these events, I find them very representative of… Read More


Will Broadcom become a Chipzilla or is the deal DOA?

Will Broadcom become a Chipzilla or is the deal DOA?
by Robert Maire on 11-11-2017 at 6:00 am

The Broadcom bid for Qualcomm is the biggest, boldest semiconductor deal to date. Just when we thought semi M&A was cooling off, this deal is a years worth of deals rolled into one. Not only does this deal upset the current balance between chip suppliers and customers, it would create a giant entity smack in the middle of IOT, AI,… Read More