Always-On IoT – FDSOI’s Always Better? What About Wafers? (Questions from Shanghai)

Always-On IoT – FDSOI’s Always Better? What About Wafers? (Questions from Shanghai)
by Adele Hars on 11-03-2016 at 7:00 am

Mahesh Tirupattur, EVP at low-power SERDES pioneer Analog Bits lead off the panel discussion at the recent FD-SOI Forum in Shanghai with the assertion that for anything “always on” in IoT, FD-SOI’s always better. They had a great experience porting their SERDES IP to 28nm FD-SOI (which they detailed last spring – see the ppt hereRead More


The IP Paradox: Sales are growing despite Semi Consolidation

The IP Paradox: Sales are growing despite Semi Consolidation
by Eric Esteve on 10-29-2016 at 7:00 am

IPnest is launching the “Interface IP Survey” since 2009, and we did it last September again. To build the survey as accurately as possible, I have followed the “divide and conquer” strategy. Interface protocols are varied, ranging from PCI Express, USB, or Ethernet, to memory controller (DDR3, DDR4, LPDDR3, LPDDR4 and more) … Read More


Interface IP year 2015: Winners and Losers

Interface IP year 2015: Winners and Losers
by Eric Esteve on 01-06-2016 at 1:00 pm

The global Interface IP market is still growing in 2015, no doubt about it. It’s interesting to zoom in the various protocols to check their respective behavior. Which protocol generates an IP business growing more than the average market? Which protocol generates a disappointing IP business? In other words, which are the winners… Read More


How Well is HSPICE Tracking Current Design Trends?

How Well is HSPICE Tracking Current Design Trends?
by Tom Simon on 02-11-2015 at 10:00 pm

For about 5 years now Synopsys has held an HSPICE SIG event in conjunction with DesignCon. It features a small vendor faire with companies that partner with Synopsys on HSPICE flows. They also have a dinner with industry/customer speakers and provide an update on HSPICE development. Lastly there is a Q&A where customers get… Read More


Don’t Mess with SerDes!

Don’t Mess with SerDes!
by Eric Esteve on 12-01-2014 at 2:23 am

SerDes stands for Serializer/Deserializer, and SerDes is a serious piece of design, requiring an extremely experienced team of analog engineers (below 10 years’ experience, you’re still a quasi-beginner). Better to rely on an analog guru to draw the SerDes architecture and manage the team! Why does SerDes is becoming more and… Read More


SerDes: Four Wires Are Better Than Two

SerDes: Four Wires Are Better Than Two
by Daniel Nenni on 04-06-2014 at 8:00 pm

Kandou Bus SA has recently been proposing the technique ENRZ (Ensemble Non Return to Zero) for use as the next generation interconnect standard for the 56 Gb/s generation of interconnect interfaces at the OIF (Optical Interconnect Forum). ENRZ is technique where three bits are orthogonally modulated over four correlated wires.… Read More


A Brief History of Kandou Bus

A Brief History of Kandou Bus
by Daniel Nenni on 02-23-2014 at 10:45 am

Kandou Logo

Kandou Bus uses a novel form of spatial coding to transmit data between wired chips. The main idea is to introduce correlations between the signals sent on the interface, and choose the correlations judiciously to lower the power consumption, increase the speed, and lower the footprint. It is a generalization of differential … Read More


High Quality PHY IPs Require Careful Management of Design Data and Processes

High Quality PHY IPs Require Careful Management of Design Data and Processes
by Pawan Fangaria on 01-29-2014 at 10:05 am

In last few years IP design has grown significantly compared to the rest of the semiconductor industry. There are newer IP start-ups opening across the world, particularly in India and China. Amid this rush, I wanted to understand the actual dynamics pushing this business and whether all of these IPs follow quality standards. … Read More


SilabTech Awarded 2013 Best Start-up in India

SilabTech Awarded 2013 Best Start-up in India
by Eric Esteve on 01-20-2014 at 8:32 am

This is obviously great news for SilabTech, and this is the type of news which will change the perception that we (non-Indian) have of the Semiconductor industry in India. About 15-20 years ago, the India Embedded/VLSI industry was perceived as low cost design resource pool, a good place where to implement design center. The hidden… Read More