Is DDR4 a bridge too far?

Is DDR4 a bridge too far?
by Don Dingee on 09-11-2012 at 8:30 pm

We’ve gone through two decades where the PC market made the rules for technology. The industry faces a question now: Can a new technology go mainstream without the PC?

By now, you’ve certainly read the news from Cadence on their DDR4 IP for TSMC 28nm. They are claiming a PHY implementation that exceeds the data rates specified for … Read More


Wireless Application: DSP IP core is dominant

Wireless Application: DSP IP core is dominant
by Eric Esteve on 09-06-2012 at 5:32 am

If we look back in the early 90’s, when the Global System for Mobile Communication (GSM) standard was just an emerging technology, the main innovation was the move from Analog to the Digital Processing of the Signal (DSP), allowing to make unlimited manipulation to an Analog signal, once digitized by the means of a converter (ADC).… Read More


Arteris joins Inc. 500 List of America’s Fastest-Growing Private Companies… thanks to Arteris customers!

Arteris joins Inc. 500 List of America’s Fastest-Growing Private Companies… thanks to Arteris customers!
by Eric Esteve on 08-31-2012 at 4:35 am

Arteris, founded in 2003, is the inventor and leading supplier of network-on-chip (NoC) interconnect IP solutions. Can we say that the company is still a start-up? I would say yes, as their flagship product, FlexNoc (Network on Chip IP function) was a completely new concept when it was introduced. As for every disruptive technology,… Read More


Apple’s Victory Will Re-Shuffle the Semi Industry

Apple’s Victory Will Re-Shuffle the Semi Industry
by Ed McKernan on 08-27-2012 at 2:00 pm

Apple’s legal victory over Samsung has been analyzed in thousands of articles and TWEETs since last Friday’s announcement and surely more will follow. Most of the commentary has focused on the first order impact to handset manufacturers. It is not entirely clear how it will all settle but there are sure to be secondary ramifications… Read More


The Generational Legacy of Steve Jobs

The Generational Legacy of Steve Jobs
by Ed McKernan on 08-16-2012 at 12:00 pm

Truly great leaders are recognized by the impact they leave several generations down the road. Roosevelt and Churchill are two historical figures who together saved Western Civilization, thus leaving a tremendous legacy even now, two generations later. In the semiconductor world we mark our generations in the two-year cadence… Read More


Qualcomm Acquires Intel’s Playbook

Qualcomm Acquires Intel’s Playbook
by Ed McKernan on 08-10-2012 at 12:00 pm

The Mobile Tsunami wave has yet to crest and the surfers strong enough to mount it are dwindling fast to the dismay of market watchers and experienced analysts. The distraction of these past few days is the courtroom drama being played out between the sumo wrestlers, Apple and Samsung, which in the end will not result in a cessation… Read More


Smartphones: Is It Game Over?

Smartphones: Is It Game Over?
by Paul McLellan on 08-08-2012 at 4:18 pm

The Q2 numbers for smartphones are now all in and the basic story is that Google is now registering an incredible million Android phones per day, half of them made by Samsung. That’s 85% of all the smartphones shipped last quarter. Android has (per IDC) 68% market share of all smartphones out there.

Apple grew by double digit… Read More


How the Apple-Samsung Duel Will Lead to Wintel 2.0

How the Apple-Samsung Duel Will Lead to Wintel 2.0
by Ed McKernan on 08-02-2012 at 11:00 am

The High Tech Trial of this Century: Apple vs. Samsung may end up being the catalyzing event that advances the established PC Monopolists known as Wintel (Microsoft and Intel) into leadership positions in the new era known as the Mobile Tsunami. Not a chance you say? Consider that the Apple, Samsung War is one that will not be settled… Read More


The Coming Battle for AMD’s x86 Hidden Cache

The Coming Battle for AMD’s x86 Hidden Cache
by Ed McKernan on 07-30-2012 at 10:58 am

Not yet a year into Rory Read’s term and the AMD board must be considering that the value of the x86 patents and engineering talent is worth much more than the stocks $3B valuation and easier to fathom putting on the auction block than continuing to sell $25 processors into the back channels of China and the Developing World. As I read… Read More


How has 20nm Changed the Semiconductor Ecosystem?

How has 20nm Changed the Semiconductor Ecosystem?
by Daniel Nenni on 07-15-2012 at 7:30 pm


What does mango beer have to do with semiconductor design and manufacturing? At a table of beer drinkers from around the world I would have never thought fruity beer would pass a taste test, not even close. As it turns out, the mango beer is very good! Same goes for 20nm planar devices. “Will not work”, “Will not yield”, “Will not scale”,… Read More