November 2016 - Page 2 of 11 - Semiconductor Engineering


The Week In Review: Design


Numbers Mentor Graphics released Q3 financial results. Revenue was $322.5 million, compared with $290.5 million in the same period in 2015, an increase of 11%. Net income was $41.8 million versus $13.9 million in 2015, an increase of 201%. The company noted that emulation revenue also was up 100%. Deals Mobileye selected Synopsys' Z01X functional safety verification solution to meet I... » read more

Manufacturing Bits: Nov. 23


Materials database The Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory has published a study that quantifies the thermodynamic scale of metastability of some 29,902 materials. To quantify the materials, researchers used Berkeley Lab’s Materials Project, a large and open database of known and predicted materials. The open and Web-based database has calculated the properties ... » read more

Multi-Board System Design


The last decade has seen extraordinary advances in printed circuit board design and fabrication. There has been substantial advances across design, from schematic entry to simulation to layout and routing to team collaboration and even to the way that manufacturing data is transferred to the fabricator. But there is one place where advancement has seemingly been stalled: the overarching system-... » read more

Accelerating DO-254 Approval


This white paper explores software tools as they relate to meeting the DO-254 Design Assurance Guidance for Airborne Electronic Hardware specifications, and what steps must be performed in order to use your typical design automation tools such as simulation, synthesis, etc. In this paper, we will explore how DO-254 views tools, learn which tools receive the highest scrutiny and why, and how to ... » read more

From Specification To Virtual Prototype


Differentiation and success for any embedded system comes from how effectively and rapidly new software features can be added. System and semiconductor manufacturers that historically aimed only at being effective at developing hardware have found themselves less competitive in the fierce battle for volume sockets in the mobile, consumer or automotive domains. The secret for success comes in mi... » read more

System Bits: Nov. 23


Entanglement bonanza Quantum computers — or other quantum information devices — powerful enough to be of practical use could be closer than thought, according to researchers at MIT and IBM’s Thomas J. Watson Research Center who have shown that simple systems of quantum particles exhibit exponentially more entanglement than previously believed. They reminded that quantum computers prom... » read more

Blog Review: Nov. 23


Mentor's Brian Derrick argues that both designers and ecosystems are changing to leverage advances in sensing technology at the edge of the IoT. Cadence's Paul McLellan listens in on a DVCon Europe keynote by NXP's Jürgen Weyer on what automotive is learning from mobile and where the big challenges lie. Synopsys' Tumuluri SantoshaLakshmi talks about seven of the biggest challenges in JED... » read more

Power/Performance Bits: Nov. 23


Increasing lithium battery density Researchers at Columbia University developed a new method to increase the energy density of lithium batteries using a trilayer structure that is stable in ambient air. "When lithium batteries are charged the first time, they lose anywhere from 5-20% energy in that first cycle," said Yuan Yang, assistant professor of materials science and engineering at C... » read more

Where Is The New Competition?


Consolidation is a regular topic of discussion at semiconductor industry conferences and trade shows. Anyone who has been to these gatherings over the past couple decades can see there are fewer companies presenting and exhibiting, fewer startups taking the place of those that were bought, and a dramatic increase in one-day, one-vendor-sponsored events where top experts are gathered to talk abo... » read more

And The Award Goes To…


I like to look at what users find the most interesting topics, not because it directly influences what I write, but to get a sense of the subjects that are on most people's minds. Some of it comes as no surprise. Content about new fabrication technologies tends to blow everything else away. While it directly affects very few of us, I think we all want to know the general direction of the indust... » read more

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