About That Landauer Limit…

About That Landauer Limit…
by Bernard Murphy on 10-19-2015 at 12:00 pm

You may have heard of the Landauer principle or the Landauer limit. This defines a lower bound on switching power dissipation in any form of digital circuit. Rolf Landauer first presented this principle in 1961, while working at IBM. It’s not limited by how the circuit is built – you can use FinFETS or spintronics or even dilithium… Read More


Vacationing with the Fabless Semiconductor Ecosystem!

Vacationing with the Fabless Semiconductor Ecosystem!
by Daniel Nenni on 06-05-2015 at 4:00 pm

The Design Automation Conference is the largest and most diverse event in the fabless semiconductor ecosystem. Next week in San Francisco you will see technology and people you have never seen before. You will benefit from the efforts of hundreds of thousands of semiconductor professionals like myself who have dedicated their… Read More


Blogging for Consultants

Blogging for Consultants
by Daniel Payne on 03-05-2015 at 9:00 pm

Paul McLellan wrote about how he stumbled into blogging and it inspired me to share my story as well. I grew up in Minnesota and attended the U of Minnesota earning a bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering so that I could design computer chips. After interviewing in 1978 with HP, IBM, Intel and Motorola I decided to join… Read More


Blogging for Dummies

Blogging for Dummies
by Paul McLellan on 03-05-2015 at 7:00 am

I am often asked how I became a blogger (or a journalist if you want to make it sound more professional). I think people assume that I planned it in some way but I never did. Life is what happens while you are making other plans. To see how unlikely it is, you need to know a bit of my background.

I have a PhD in computer science so I’m actually… Read More


Fabless Semiconductor Milestones of 2014!

Fabless Semiconductor Milestones of 2014!
by Daniel Nenni on 12-28-2014 at 9:00 am

After working in the semiconductor industry for the past thirty years and writing about it for the past six I would say that 2014 was one of the more interesting years of late. Vindication is the word that pops into my mind now that many “predictions” the fabless detractors have made over the last three years were proven wrong.

As a student… Read More


In Case You Missed #51DAC

In Case You Missed #51DAC
by Daniel Nenni on 07-02-2014 at 9:50 am

This will probably end up being the most memorable DAC for us since Paul and I signed hundreds of copies of our book “Fabless: The Transformation of the Semiconductor Industry”. I’m not sure how we are going to top that next year but I’m confident we will think of something. If you want to catch up on the live blogs from the last three conferences… Read More


This is How We Get One Million Design Starts!

This is How We Get One Million Design Starts!
by Daniel Nenni on 06-28-2014 at 10:00 am

One of the most interesting demos at #51DAC was the eSilicon GDS II online quote system for TSMC. Probably because eSilicon was one of the most interesting companies exhibiting this year. While writing the book “Fabless: The Transformation of the Semiconductor Industry” we took a close look at the history of fabless semiconductor… Read More


SemiWiki is an Open Forum for Semiconductor Professionals!

SemiWiki is an Open Forum for Semiconductor Professionals!
by Daniel Nenni on 06-15-2014 at 10:05 am

Why should you be a part of SemiWiki? Two reasons: One, SemiWiki is an excellent semiconductor networking tool. Quite often “who you know” comes into play in your professional life so network-network-network. Two, SemiWiki is all about personal branding. Establish yourself as a person of interest in your chosen field and opportunities… Read More


Fabless Book Giveaway at #51DAC Reception!

Fabless Book Giveaway at #51DAC Reception!
by Daniel Nenni on 06-01-2014 at 5:30 am

eSilicon will be providing books for the first 300 people to attend the Tuesday night networking reception sponsored by SemiWiki. To avoid confusion they will be giving out BOOK COUPONS when you arrive to be redeemed when the event starts so grab a coupon, enjoy the food and drinks! I can assure you this will be the ultimate networking… Read More


SemiWiki Exceeds One Million Users!

SemiWiki Exceeds One Million Users!
by Daniel Nenni on 05-29-2014 at 11:00 am

SemiWiki was launched on January 1[SUP]st[/SUP] 2011 and according to Google Analytics we have officially exceeded one million users (unique visitors). I really don’t know what to say but, WOW, that is a LOT of people reading SemiWiki articles, wikis, and forums (there are now 13,464 posts on SemiWiki).

According to Alexa.com… Read More