Blog Review: Sept. 25

LEDs, table manners, prison, market outlook, boot time, form factors, 3D-IC flows.

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By Ed Sperling
Mentor’s Michael Ford has replaced his dingy bathroom lights with LEDs, and now he literally can see all the stuff that needs to be fixed. Sound familiar?

Synopsys’ Mick Posner pulls out the old bread and drink mnemonic for which water glass is yours at a crowded table. But what do you do when someone else gets it wrong? “Excuse me, that’s my FPGA prototyping board.”

Cadence’s Brian Fuller takes a look at the export compliance regulations that can land you in prison. How do you submit a travel expense report that’s six years late?

Semico Research’s Jim Feldhan takes apart the numbers for semiconductor sales and equipment—which ultimately feeds back to design. There are lots of caveats, but the outlook is improving.

Mentor’s Christopher Hallinan digs into achieving faster boot time with Linux. Given the impact of software on hardware performance and power, this is a good starting point.

Synopsys’ Richard Solomon jumps from the fires and floods in his home state of Colorado into a blog on the latest 2-in-1 form factor. They don’t exactly go together, but that may be the point.

Cadence’s Richard Goering notes an interesting development—TSMC is now supporting true 3D stacking in its reference flow. Given the price of 14/16nm finFETs, this architectural approach is looking better and better.

Mentor’s Colin Walls is heading up a smart energy panel session. Does that mean no microphones?

And patterning expert Mike Watts looks at the real master of patterning—an octopus. State-of-the-art technology pales in comparison to what these creatures can do.



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