TI: Semiconductor Industry History of Innovation

TI: Semiconductor Industry History of Innovation
by Daniel Nenni on 07-06-2018 at 7:00 am

This is the fifth in the series of “20 Questions with Wally Rhines”

Texas Instruments is a remarkable company founded by remarkable people. And Eric Jonsson was one of the most remarkable visionaries of the 20[SUP]th[/SUP] century. He was a renaissance man who created an industry and a fortune by following the needs… Read More


55DAC Trip Report Needham Opening Presentation

55DAC Trip Report Needham Opening Presentation
by Daniel Nenni on 07-04-2018 at 7:00 am

Driving into DAC on Sunday afternoon was a chore since Gay Pride week was finishing with the Gay Pride Parade. Streets were closed, traffic was crazy, and people were roller skating naked which seems wrong on so many levels. This year the opening ceremonies were in the convention center hallway which also seemed wrong. Long lines… Read More


Mentor at the 55th Design Automation Conference

Mentor at the 55th Design Automation Conference
by Daniel Nenni on 06-22-2018 at 9:00 am

It’s hard to believe that this is the 55th DAC and even harder to believe that this will be my 35th. So much has changed in 35 years, with DAC back in San Francisco I expect a VERY big crowd and even bigger announcements, absolutely.

Not only is this an epic time for semiconductors, I would say that EDA is exciting again and the Mentor… Read More


Folklore Around the HP 35 LED Development and the Nobel Prize

Folklore Around the HP 35 LED Development and the Nobel Prize
by Daniel Nenni on 06-22-2018 at 7:00 am

This is the third in the series of “20 Questions with Wally Rhines”

In the early 1970s I was working on a PhD thesis based upon GaAs light emitting diodes, or LEDs. Many of my predecessors in the Materials Science and Engineering Department at Stanford had worked on other aspects of III-V compounds and some of them went… Read More


Stanford and Semiconductors: A Unique Combination in the 1960s

Stanford and Semiconductors: A Unique Combination in the 1960s
by Daniel Nenni on 06-15-2018 at 7:00 am

This is the second in the series of “20 Questions with Wally Rhines”

At 8am on my first day of graduate school at Stanford, I joined the “Structure of Materials” class taught by Craig Barrett, the youngest faculty member in the Materials Science and Engineering Department. Craig had just returned from a post-doc in … Read More


20 Questions with Wally Rhines

20 Questions with Wally Rhines
by Daniel Nenni on 06-08-2018 at 12:00 pm

When I first started blogging in 2009 my sound byte was, “I blog for food” and the first lunch invitation I received was from Mentor Graphics CEO Wally Rhines, we have been friends ever since. Wally has an incredible mind with a memory to match, coupled with his charm and depth of experience I would easily say that Dr. Walden… Read More


Mentor Siemens Update 2018

Mentor Siemens Update 2018
by Daniel Nenni on 06-04-2018 at 7:00 am

As you know I am a big fan of disruption and the Siemens acquisition of Mentor is turning out to be one of my favorite EDA disruptions. At first it was a little bit perplexing but after one short year it makes complete sense.

Siemens is acquiring Mentor as part of its Vision 2020 concept to be the Benchmark for the New Industrial Age. It’s… Read More


Semiconductor, EDA Industries Maturing? Wally Disagrees

Semiconductor, EDA Industries Maturing? Wally Disagrees
by Bernard Murphy on 05-22-2018 at 7:00 am

Wally Rhines (President and CEO of Mentor, A Siemens Business) has been pushing a contrarian view versus the conventional wisdom that the semiconductor business, and by extension EDA, is slowing down. He pitched this at DVCon and more recently at U2U where I got to hear the pitch and talk to him afterwards.


What causes maturing is… Read More


Semiconductor Specialization Drives New Industry Structure

Semiconductor Specialization Drives New Industry Structure
by Daniel Nenni on 05-09-2018 at 7:00 am

When traveling the world there are the things that you see and the people that you meet. I have been very fortunate to meet some of the most amazing people and one of those people is Dr. Walden Rhines. Wally spent the first half of his career in semiconductors at TI and the second half in EDA with Mentor Graphics which gives him a cyborg … Read More


2018 Women in Engineering Achievement Award

2018 Women in Engineering Achievement Award
by Daniel Nenni on 05-02-2018 at 7:00 am

Having spent my entire thirty plus year career in semiconductors and design enablement I have seen quite a change in diversity. When I first started I remember thinking that height and weight was the only diversity here in Silicon Valley. My wife really noticed it when she attended her first Design Automation Conference in 1985 … Read More