There’s a small art gallery near the office. It features a new set of paintings by a local artist every two weeks. As I walk by I tend to check out what’s hanging in there. Sometimes I turn up my nose at what I see – a bit too wacky, a bit too abstract, a bit too paint by numbers. Sometimes I walk in to take a closer look but leave the shop empty-handed… Read More
Tag: semiconductor design
The Death of Moore’s Law
For the last several years, people have predicted the end of Moore’s Law. The reasoning is that there is a limit at which one can’t shrink transistors any further. A reoccurring comment has been “You can’t divide an atom.” I had assumed that its demise would be at the hands of a new paradigm like quantum computing. Now, with Intel’s … Read More
Japan..silent but strong players of semiconductor industry
Japanese stood to be the world leaders during 1980-1990 regime in semiconductor manufacturing[SUP] [2][/SUP]. During my research, I found that Japanese semiconductor firms are very strong leaders in process which gave them a competitive advantage over others. Situation is bit different today, as we have fabless firms taking… Read More
Synopsys on the Future of Custom Layout!
Analog and mixed signal design has received more than their fair share of attention since the mobile revolution and now that FinFETs are in production at the foundries I see that trend continuing. As a result this year there are some interesting things brewing in EDA, especially in the area of Custom Layout.
Innovation in Custom … Read More
Semiconductor IP Comes of Age
I love reading about good news in the EDA and Semiconductor IP space, especially in light of the recent stock market trending downward in January. The best news that I’ve read in the past week is about the Q3 2015 revenue numbers collected by EDAC, because it shows that Semiconductor IP (SIP) surpassed CAE tool revenues for … Read More
A Synergistic Chip-Package-System Analysis Methodology
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
Verification with Tcl for what? – part 2
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
Verification with Tcl for what?
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
Free Copy of EDAgraffiti!
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
3 Self-Service Semiconductor Design and Manufacturing Wins!
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