Looking back, 2015 was a significant year for mergers and acquisitions in the EDA industry. The Semiwiki team maintains a chronology of major transactions here.
As I was reviewing this compendium, one of the entries that stands out is the acquisition of Apache Design Solutions by Ansys, Inc. a couple of years ago.
At that time, there… Read More
In Orion Bytes we use Tcl both for the internal research, product and different verification services. We use also SystemVerilog UVM and Python based Cocotb for different approaches. I think it’s no need to deep into the SystemVerilog and UVM principles here – today’s main verification fashion is well described through… Read More
Nowadays, verification as one of the most complex SoC, FPGA, and ASIC development flow stages always requires new approaches. The following is an introduction to TcL vs/ with SystemVerilog and VHDL, the first in a 3 part series. Part 2 will be “Tcl vs Python, Bluespec” and part 3 will be “VerTcl description”.… Read More
Last month we offered a free PDF version of our book “Fabless: The Transformation of the Semiconductor Industry”, for the greater good. More than thirteen thousand people have downloaded it thus far so we would like to keep the momentum going with another book giveaway. Paul McLellan has graciously offered his book… Read More
As the semiconductor consolidation continues and thousands of semiconductor professionals update their LinkedIn profiles, the march to create new silicon opportunities is increasing at a rapid pace. It is 1980s deja vu all over again when the fabless business model reenergized the semiconductor industry and brought affordable… Read More
Last week I woke up late as usual and decided to flip through the news paper on Coffee to enjoy the lazy Sunday morning, but I ended up reading a sad news about a train accident. Everyday virtually we hear about minimum one accident. Indian Railways, wow, what a reliable transportation system we have built. It clearly indicates we have… Read More
“All models are wrong, some are useful.” This remark is attributed to the statistician George Box who used it as the section heading in a paper published in 1976.
Just for fun I looked up a few semiconductor statistics from 1976. Total capital spending was $238M in Japan and $306M in US and…that’s it, there was nobody else back then … Read More
The big Apple iProduct announcement was today so I thought it would be a good time to premier a draft of the Apple chapter in our upcoming book. Try as I might I was unable to get one of the 7,000 tickets to the live event (it was like getting a Willy Wonka golden ticket!) so I live streamed it from my iPhone like millions of other people. It… Read More
A funny thing happened at the Design Automation Conference last June in San Francisco. I was browsing the Kaufman award winner mug shots in the EDAC booth and noticed that Wally Rhines was NOT a winner. You can see them HERE. Immediately in disbelief I said to myself: Self, how can this be? Joe Costello, Aart de Geus, and some other guys… Read More
If expanding industries typically indicate vibrancy, a race to acquire and consolidate is generally reflective of the opposite – a period of slowed growth in mature, once high-flying categories. And while many industries experience a period of stardom, followed by a sharp and steady decline, we should be extremely worried when… Read More
