The 15th TSMC Open Innovation Platform® (OIP) was held last week. In preparation we did a podcast with one of the original members of the TSMC OIP team Dan Kochpatcharin. Dan and I talked about the early days before OIP when we did reference flows together. Around 20 years ago I did a career pivot and focused on Strategic Foundry Relationships.… Read More
We’re living in an era of good growth for semiconductor design companies, and it’s no secret that each new SoC that comes along contains hundreds of IP blocks, so IP design re-use is just an accepted way of getting to market more quickly with lower risks. But how do we really know that all of the new IP is really correct? … Read More
DAC is upon us again! The Design Automation Conference holds special meaning to me as it was the first technical conference I attended as a semiconductor professional, or professional anything for that matter. That was 33 years ago and I have not missed one since. This year my wife and I both will be walking the DAC floor and it would… Read More
It may be hard to believe but this happens to be my thirty third Design Automation Conference. Where does the time go? Three of my kids are out of college and the last one is getting close. That is where my time has gone. The conference itself started in 1964 but my first one was in 1984 in Albuquerque, New Mexico. In fact, that was the year… Read More
Even though the flight to Taiwan is somewhat difficult, I really do enjoy my trips to Hsinchu. In addition to the top two pure-play foundries being there, one of the top SoC companies (MediaTek) and many of the leading semiconductor design companies are there as well. All are a quick taxi ride from my home away from home, the Hotel Royal.… Read More
I recently talked to Trent McConaghy about his book on variation-aware design of custom ICs and the #50DAC tutorial we are doing:
Winning in Monte Carlo: Managing Simulations Under Variability and Reliability.
Trent is the Solido Chief Technology Officer, an engaging speaker, one of the brightest minds in EDA, and someone who… Read More
Solido Design Automation and TSMC recently published an article in EE Times describing how Solido’s High-Sigma Monte Carlo tool is used with TSMC PDK’s to achieve high-yield, high-performance memory design. This project has been a big part of my life for the past three years and it is time for a victory lap!
In TSMC 28nm, 20nm and … Read More
I like to say that “you can’t ignore the physics any more” to point out that we have to worry about lots of physical effects that we never needed to consider. But “you can’t ignore the statistics any more” would be another good slogan. In the design world we like to pretend that the world is pass/fail. But manufacturing is actually a statistical… Read More
