When Invaluable Kills Business

When Invaluable Kills Business
by Frederic Leens on 12-11-2017 at 7:00 am

Productivity is notoriously hard to sell. I recently visited a company where the engineering team wanted to evaluate one of our FPGA debug and analysis products on an existing board. This board had an FPGA that we supported and had all the required connectivity – it could just be used ‘out of the box’. Our tool – ExostivRead More


TSMC OIP Ecosystem Forum 2017 Preview!

TSMC OIP Ecosystem Forum 2017 Preview!
by Daniel Nenni on 08-23-2017 at 12:00 pm

The TSMC OIP Ecosystem Forum is upon us again. I have yet to meet a disappointed attendee so it is definitely worth your time: Networking with more than 1,000 semiconductor professionals, the food, mingling with the 50+ EDA, IP, and Services Companies, the food, and of course the content. The 7nm and 7nm EUV updates alone are worth… Read More


HW and SW Co-verification for Xilinx Zynq SoC FPGAs

HW and SW Co-verification for Xilinx Zynq SoC FPGAs
by Daniel Payne on 07-03-2017 at 12:00 pm

It constantly amazes me at how much FGPA companies like Xilinx have done to bring ARM-based CPUs into a programmable SoC along with FPGA glue logic. Xilinx offers the Zynq 7000 and Zynq UltraScale+ SoCs to systems designers as a way to quickly get their ideas into the marketplace. A side effect of all this programability and flexibility… Read More


The FPGA Business Just Got Interesting Again!

The FPGA Business Just Got Interesting Again!
by Daniel Nenni on 06-14-2017 at 8:00 am

FPGA’s have played an important role in the fabless semiconductor ecosystem which is why it has a full chapter in our book Fabless: The Transformation of the Semiconductor Industry. Along my career path I spent time at a start-up FPGA so I know how hard it is. I worked for GateField which was then acquired by FPGA pioneer Actel… Read More


A Self-Contained Software-Driven Prototype

A Self-Contained Software-Driven Prototype
by Bernard Murphy on 04-26-2017 at 7:00 am

You’re building an IP, subsystem or SoC and you want to use a prototype together with a software testbench to drive extensive validation testing. I’m not talking here about the software running on the IP/SoC processor(s); the testbench should wrap around the whole DUT. This is a very common requirement. The standard approach to… Read More


Xilinx vs Altera Update 2017

Xilinx vs Altera Update 2017
by Daniel Nenni on 02-15-2017 at 7:00 am

I truly miss the Xilinx versus Altera war of words (competition at its finest) and competition is what makes the fabless semiconductor ecosystem truly great, absolutely. So with great disappointment I read the Intel Analyst Day transcript published by Bloomberg last week. It is attached at the bottom in case you are interested… Read More


Is FPGA Intel Next Big Thing for IoT ?

Is FPGA Intel Next Big Thing for IoT ?
by Eric Esteve on 11-04-2016 at 4:00 pm

I write this article in reaction to another article from Seeking Alpha titled “Intel Next Big Thing”. I have extracted this from the article:

The IoT space is growing rapidly with the advent of connected cars, smart homes and a variety of connected devices and appliances. However, before a full-blown ecosystem around these devicesRead More


Xilinx is Killing Altera!

Xilinx is Killing Altera!
by Daniel Nenni on 06-28-2016 at 4:00 pm

At a recent outing with FPGA friends from days gone by, the long running Xilinx vs Altera debate has come to an end. The bottom line is that Xilinx has used the FUD (fear, uncertainty, and doubt) of the Intel acquisition quite effectively against Altera and is racking up 20nm and 16nm design wins at an alarming rate. It will be a while … Read More