What’s in a Name?


Test Vision 2020 is a specialty workshop held each year during Semicon West. Formerly known as ATE Vision 2020, the program focuses on automatic test equipment and related topics. This year’s edition heard a lot about artificial intelligence, automotive electronics, and machine learning, which have been the leading topics at every tech conference I’ve attended in 2018. The workshop’s t... » read more

Auto Chip Test Getting Harder


Chipmakers and test/validation companies are helping lead the effort to develop self-driving cars, but they are facing a wide range of technical and even cultural barriers. Advanced driver assist systems (ADAS) already are the most complex systems by far in modern cars, the best of which hover between Level 2 and Level 3 on the five-step autonomy ladder maintained by the Society of Automotiv... » read more

Week in Review: IoT, Security, Auto


Deals Arm acquired Treasure Data, which offers a data management service. Financial terms weren’t revealed, although the transaction is reportedly worth $600 million. Joyce Kim, Arm’s chief marketing officer, told reporters that the purchase is “the largest cash deal we’ve done.” Along with the company’s introduction of Mbed Cloud (a device management service) last year and the acq... » read more

IoT Meets ML


AI and machine learning are the next big things, and they're going make a huge difference in the adoption and capabilities of the IoT. Unlike previous technology approaches, AI, machine learning and deep learning are based on patterns. In effect, they raise up the level of abstraction for data. An image of a cat can be megabytes of data, and a cat taken from all angles may be gigabytes of da... » read more

Artificial Intelligence Chips: Past, Present and Future


Artificial Intelligence (AI) is much in the news these days. AI is making medical diagnoses, synthesizing new chemicals, identifying the faces of criminals in a huge crowd, driving cars, and even creating new works of art. Sometimes it seems as if there is nothing that AI cannot do and that we will all soon be out of our jobs, watching the AIs do everything for us. To understand the origins ... » read more

Not Enough Respect For SoC Interconnect


For high-volume system-on-chip (SoC) applications—artificial intelligence (AI), automotive, mobility, solid state drives and more—effective interconnect technology can generate hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue due to smaller chip area, better functionality and faster delivery of SoC platforms. State-of-the-art interconnect technology also allows chip designers to create SoC deriva... » read more

Week in Review: IoT, Security, Auto


Automotive Tech Marvell Technology Group opened its automotive electromagnetic compatibility lab in North America. The facility is CISPR 25-qualified and gives the chip company the capability to conduct in-house electrostatic discharge, emission, and immunity testing. Marvell also reported that its 88Q2112 offering received a mark of 100% in conformance testing outlined by the Japan Automotive... » read more

Technical Conferences: The Insurmountable Opportunity


As a technology marketeer, I’m always looking for high-leverage events to promote our brand and gain visibility for new products and services. Let’s face it, this is the main benefit for attending a technical conference or a trade show. While the dream might be 40+ leads that are well-qualified and closable in the quarter, the reality is more of a long-game kind of strategy. For years, t... » read more

Mixed Outlook For Semi Biz


Both the IC and fab equipment industries have been enjoying a boom cycle for some time, but they could be facing speed bumps and possibly turbulence in the second half of this year and into 2019. In the first half of 2018, the industry was fueled by the momentum carried over from 2017. DRAM prices remained relatively high, which contributed to the revenue growth in the overall IC industry. M... » read more

Week in Review: IoT, Security, Auto


Cybersecurity Rambus signed a patent license agreement with Socionext, a designer of system-on-a-chip devices. Socionext will use Rambus technology in memory controllers, serializers/deserializers, and security applications. Netskope acquired Sift Security, adding 10 technical employees to its headcount of more than 500 people; financial terms weren’t revealed. Sift CEO Neil King was tapp... » read more

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