Interchip Connectivity


By Kurt Shuler It may seem strange to link two interchip interface standards to the future of3D integrated circuits, but please bear with me for a few minutes. I hope to prove that the learning from today will impact how we design SoCs in the near future. C2C and LLI: The first standards created with the “combo chip” in mind As you may already know, the purposes of the chip-to-chip (C2... » read more

Semiconductor Slowdown? Invest!


By Kurt Shuler Samsung’s announcement that it is investing a company-record $42B in 2012 for technology development came as a bit of a shock to many in the financial and technology press. The size of this investment dwarfs that of any other company I know of, and even exceeds the expected technology investments of entire nations, such as the combined investments of the Japanese semiconductor... » read more

Where The Wild Things Are…


By Kurt Shuler After spending the past month on the road meeting customers in China, Korea and Europe, I finally had the opportunity to read Maurice Sendak’s excellent children’s book, “Where the Wild Things Are,” to my two year-old son this weekend. I see some parallels between the world experienced by the book’s young protagonist, Max, and what I learned from Gartner analyst Ganesh... » read more

Thinking Bigger


I am in Shanghai and Xi’an this week for the ICCAD event and numerous customer visits, and have had the opportunity to observe and reflect upon the drivers of change within our industry. Living in the United States, and specifically Silicon Valley, has given me a front-row seat to the technology business for well over a decade. But my first visit to mainland China has shown me how parochial a... » read more

A Message From Steve Jobs


By Kurt Shuler “I wanted my kids to know me. I wasn’t always there for them, and I wanted them to know why and to understand what I did.” This is how Steve Jobs answered his biographer when asked why he agreed to cooperate in the writing of his biography. Jobs’ statement was a kick in the gut when I first read it, and still elicits a gnawing pain in me. It drove home the point th... » read more

MIPI LLI Or C2C?


By Kurt Shuler Two new options for interchip connectivity are available today that enable sharing a DRAM memory between two chips for data and programs. These standards, called MIPI Low Latency Interface (MIPI LLI) and Chip-to-Chip (C2C), are primarily targeted at mobile phones, where a mobile phone’s modem usually requires its own discreet DRAM. With either C2C or MIPI LLI, the mobile phone... » read more

Mainstreaming


By Kurt Shuler Gartner analyst Jim Tully’s assessment that network on chip (NoC) technology will be “mainstream” in two to five years is an acknowledgement of the technical and commercial success NoC interconnect IP has had in the consumer electronics system on chip (SoC) market over the last couple of years. As reported by EE Times, Gartner’s latest “Hype Cycle for Semiconductors... » read more

Next Up: Touchless Screens


By Kurt Shuler Gesture Recognition Qualcomm’s announcement this Monday that it has acquired assets from gesture recognition technology pioneer GestureTek makes it official: Gesture recognition based on video camera technology will be in phones sooner than we think. [caption id="attachment_7583" align="alignnone" width="716"] Source: TI and YouTube[/caption] Video-based gesture recognit... » read more

Our STBs Really Suck (Power)


By Kurt Shuler For all the work our industry does to implement sophisticated power management and conservation features in our chips and software, I was dismayed (and a little appalled) to read Saturday’s New York Times article, “Atop TV Sets, a Power Drain That Runs Nonstop.” Our industry’s dirty little secret is out, with help from the National Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and... » read more

The Trouble With Tradeshows


By Kurt Shuler There’s no doubt about it—industry tradeshow attendance is shrinking. If you don’t believe me, just look at the trends for a well-known tradeshow in the semiconductor industry, the Design Automation Conference. I’m not picking on any one show. I’m choosing DAC because I could find audited attendance numbers online for this show. Most other semiconductor industry trades... » read more

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