Portland, Oregon is a hotbed of innovation for software development companies and I tend to scan the headlines of my local newspaper the Oregonian, which is where I first started to read about Jama Software a few years back. Curiosity and opportunity drove me to meet with Trevor Smith of Jama in their Portland office. We chatted for… Read More
Tag: semiconductor
Strong pickup in semiconductors in 2017
World Semiconductor Trade Statistics (WSTS) is an organization of semiconductor companies created to collect market data. The members of WSTS also meet twice per year to develop forecasts for the semiconductor market. The “forecast by committee” approach of WSTS usually results in conservative forecasts. However, WSTS called… Read More
Semiconductors flat for second straight year
The global semiconductor market posted strong 11.6% growth in 3[SUP]rd[/SUP] quarter 2016 from 2[SUP]nd[/SUP] quarter, according to WSTS. This strength is reflected in the 3[SUP]rd[/SUP] quarter revenue growth reported by the major semiconductor suppliers. Of the 12 companies, half (Intel, Samsung, Broadcom, TI, Micron… Read More
CEO Interview: Dündar Dumlugöl of Magwel
Magwel CEO Dündar Dumlugöl is well known from his days at Cadence, where I first met him, and for his more recent tenure at Magwel. At Cadence he led the team that first developed Spectre. He has come a long way from the start of his career at IMEC in Belgium. He and I had a chance to have a conversation recently where he offered insights … Read More
An End of Year View of Semi Consolidation
The last couple of years have been tumultuous for the semiconductor market. IC Insights just released a report showing just how much consolidation has concentrated market strength in a small number of companies. The report (which excludes fabs) shows that the 5 top companies – Intel, Samsung, Qualcomm, Broadcom and SK Hynix – … Read More
CEO Interview: Randy Caplan of Silicon Creations
For the next installment in our series of semiconductor CEO interviews we meet with Randy Caplan from Silicon Creations. Randy has helped build the company from a small startup to one of the world’s leading providers of interface and clocking IP. Almost every new chip developed these days has a requirement for PLLs and SerDes. Since… Read More
The post election Semicap bubble just burst in one day
Back to a more normal reality… Market gets”De-Fanged”… Where to from here? The “Icarus” Effect… Much of the market, and especially Tech & “FANG” (Facebook, Amazon, Netflix & Google) stocks gave back most all of their post election day gains in one session.… Read More
The efabless $15,000 Design Challenge!
efabless is one of the more interesting companies we have worked with over the last six years. Interesting because it is disruptive and because it is all about enabling design starts, the life blood of the semiconductor industry.… Read More
IC Design Management: Build or Buy?
When I first started doing circuit design with Intel at the transistor level back in the late 1970’s we had exactly two EDA tools at our disposal: an internally developed SPICE circuit simulator, and a commercial IC layout system. Over the years at Intel the internal CAD group added many more automation tools: gate level simulator,… Read More
Free Pivotal Semiconductor Books!
Just as a reminder, there are three semiconductor books in PDF format available for free on SemiWiki.com. The only hitch is that you must be a registered SemiWiki member to download them. If you are not currently a member please join here as my guest:… Read More