At the TSMC Theater Apache (don’t forget, now a subsidary of Ansys) talked about Emerging Challenges for Power, Signal and Reliability Verification on 3D-IC and Silicon Interposer Designs. The more I see about the costs and challenges of 20/22nm and below, the more I think that these 3D and 2.5D approaches are going to be … Read More
I met with Amit Gupta, President and CEO of Solido at DAC on Tuesday to get an update on their EDA tools used in the design of memory, standard cells and low-power. In 2012 they’ve expanded to add three new software packages: Memory, Standard Cell, Low Power. They must be doing something right because at DAC this year I see more… Read More
Mike Muller’s keynote focused on a lot of changes since the ARM1 was designed in 1983 when ARM the company did not exist and ARM was the next generation processor for Acorn Computer, which was really in the hobby market and had its first boost when they had a contract to design the BBC Microcomputer to go along with a computer literacy… Read More
David Abercrombie from Mentor Graphics met with me on Tuesday at DAC to provide an update on DPT – Double Patterning Technology, something new required for several layers starting at the 20nm node in order to get any IC yield. DPT is also part of Multiple-Patterning.… Read More
Lunch on Tuesday at DAC was sponsored by the IPL Alliance and thankfully this year they skipped the attempt at humor and focused on interoperable PDKs. Presenting companies include: Synopsys, Dongbu HiTek, TowerJazz, X-FAB and Si2. Having both OpenPDK and iPDK on the same platform does sound like a peaceful co-existence to me,… Read More
The Linley group is the go-to source for information about the microprocessor market. If you go back to their roots in Michael Slater’s Microprocessor Report then they have been in the business for 25 years. We haven’t had microprocessors for that much longer. They just tagged Tensilica as being second in shipments… Read More
Atrenta announced today that it is acquiring NextOp Software. NextOp sells a tool BugScope that provides assertion synthesis technology. This complements Atrenta’s SpyGlass products for improving the process for design of complex semiconductor IP and SoCs.
I went to Atrenta’s office to talk to Ajoy Bose (CEO)… Read More
I use social media 7 days a week and while at DAC I received a message from Herve Guegan on my LinkedIn account where he basically said, “Hey, go check out Asygn at DAC, they do analog macro models.”… Read More
News today is that Moody’s has downgraded Nokia to junk status. They also announced that they will lay off 10,000 people (including about 1 in 4 of the people they employ in Finland, where Nokia is headquartered).
For those of you who don’t know all the inside-baseball stuff about Nokia, here is a recent little history.… Read More
I got an email from Mentor Embedded this morning about a webinar on Implementing a GENIVI-compliant System. I have to admit I had no idea what GENIVI is, which surprised me. I spent several years working in the embedded space and so I usually have at least a 50,000 foot view of most things going on there. One reason for my ignorance is … Read More
