category: Editor’s Note

category: IoT, Security & Automotive

Cyclical Behavior
By Ed Sperling - 26 May, 2011 - Comments: 0

As we head into yet another DAC, this may seem like a bad case of déjà vu. While there’s plenty of new stuff—and even some new companies—there are some key trends that seem very familiar. Here are four to consider: 1. Cloud computing. For anyone who’s old enough to remember time-sharing on university computers, cloud computing should look very familiar. The scheduling is more so... » read more

RF Substrate Technologies for Mobile Communications
By Various Writers - 23 May, 2011 - Comments: 0

Two Soitec Group managers -- Eric Desbonnets and Stéphane Laurent -- describe how SOI wafers support RF technology development. » read more

Understanding Frog Behavior
By Ed Sperling - 20 May, 2011 - Comments: 0

Change is rarely something people can grasp, particularly in technology. Unless it involves a completely new way of doing things—witness the PC, the cell phone and the Internet, for example—most change involves evolutionary improvements. This is the proverbial frog in a pot of boiling water. Heat the frog up slowly and it will cook. Throw the frog into boiling water and it will leap to s... » read more

Planning For Physical Effects
By Ed Sperling - 06 May, 2011 - Comments: 0

The importance of Intel’s announcement that it has perfected 3D transistors and will roll them out this year should not be understated. This is a major breakthrough technologically, with major implications for power, performance and even competitiveness. FinFETs have been the subject of some intensive research for more than a decade, with the University of California at Berkeley leading the c... » read more

Effects Unknown
By Ed Sperling - 22 Apr, 2011 - Comments: 0

f you really want to know what’s going on inside the IC design world, pick up a copy of the annual reports of the largest foundries. Then triangulate that with the earnings reports of the largest makers of computers and mobile electronics and the makers of EDA tools and IP. All three areas are experiencing a massive uptick, which is good news considering the travails of the past couple of ... » read more

Behind The Analog Frenzy
By Ed Sperling - 08 Apr, 2011 - Comments: 0

Analog is suddenly very hot again, and much of it appears to be due to the promise of 2.5D and 3D stacking. Texas Instruments pulled out its checkbook to pay $6.5 billion for National Semiconductor, and Microsemi has offered $28 million for AML Communications, which makes low-noise and high-power microwave amplifiers. So what’s behind these move? In TI’s case, there appears to be a re... » read more

Engineering’s Growing Blacklist
By Ed Sperling - 25 Mar, 2011 - Comments: 0

The number of system-level design flaws is rising, and they’re not just little mistakes. These are high-profile errors that are making headlines all over the globe. While it’s debatable whether Toyota’s problem was a hardware or software design glitch, the simple fact is there was a design flaw somewhere. That’s true for the BP Gulf of Mexico leak, regardless of who’s responsible f... » read more

The Great Unknowns
By Ed Sperling - 18 Mar, 2011 - Comments: 0

Across the semiconductor industry—as well as many other end-product industries—there have been some well-documented and sober assessments of what impact the damage in Japan will have on business. In the EDA business, these kinds of numbers will be much harder to determine. Japan is a big consumer of EDA tools for the leading-edge process nodes, but with disruptions in power it will be d... » read more

The New Multicore Approach
By Ed Sperling - 24 Feb, 2011 - Comments: 0

It’s probably too harsh to say that multicore has been a failure, but it’s flat-out wrong to say it has been successful. Multicore was an inevitable outgrowth of Moore’s Law. You simply can’t keep turning up the frequency for processors at advanced nodes without cooking the chip into oblivion. In theory, four cores running at a much cooler 1GHz should be better than one core running... » read more

Cloud Seeding
By Ed Sperling - 18 Feb, 2011 - Comments: 0

Selling EDA through a software-as-a-service model is hardly a new concept. It’s also not a particularly successful one. Despite some initial hype and sporadic attempts to revive it, the idea has fallen flat due to concerns about version control, security and an almost universal aversion to engineers having to send large files back and forth to a server. The approach is getting a new look, ... » read more

← Older posts Newer posts →

  • Sponsors

About

Navigation

Connect With Us

Copyright ©2013-2025 SMG   |  Terms of Service  |  Privacy Policy