7 Ways to Assess Semiconductor IP Quality


Design teams today are struggling with the quality of semiconductor intellectual property. These teams want first-pass success for SoC creation, but that is becoming increasingly difficult to achieve—especially with highly configurable IP. Yet the more configurable the IP is, the more desirable it is as a differentiator. And if not developed correctly, it may be even more risky than non-confi... » read more

Executive Insight: Grant Pierce


Grant Pierce, president and CEO of Sonics, sat down with Semiconductor Engineering to talk about the effects of industry consolidation, China's impact, and the unfolding security threat with the IoT. What follows are excerpts of that interview. SE: Consolidation is one of the big stories right now. What does that mean for your company and the industry as a whole? Pierce: It's a very inter... » read more

The Great Imbalance


The number of options for chipmakers is growing while the number of chipmakers is shrinking. So what does this mean for the semiconductor industry? Short answer: No one is quite sure yet. But a lot more people are beginning to ask that question these days, including investors and analysts. There are a number of factors at play here. To begin with, there are more nodes to choose from than at ... » read more

Rethinking Manufacturing Models


The perennial uncertainty surrounding EUV lithography and complications stemming from the most advanced nodes are creating a domino effect across the semiconductor industry. Rather than stalling the market, though, which is what happened with the transition to 20nm, vendors now are accelerating their product rollouts and adjusting business plans to capitalize on those delays. That includes m... » read more

Challenges At Advanced Nodes


Semiconductor Engineering sat down to discuss finFETs, 22nm FD-SOI and how the how the market will segment over the next few years with Marie Semeria, CEO of [getentity id="22192" e_name="Leti"]; Patrick Soheili, vice president of product management and corporate development at [getentity id="22242" e_name="eSilicon"]; Paul Boudre, CEO of Soitec; and Subramani Kengeri, vice president of global ... » read more

Equipment Market Drifts Downward


Most analysts covering the equipment market have dropped their forecasts, some by as much as half, since the start of the year. While there are a number of variables that could ultimately change those numbers—the Greek debt crisis, currency fluctuations, server sales, the delivery of a commercially viable EUV—the bottom line is that the market is looking more skittish. Dan Tracy, SEMI's ... » read more

Moore’s Law Reset?


GlobalFoundries today took the wraps off its 22nm FD-SOI process, promising to extend Moore's Law technologically without altering the economic equation—at least for the next couple of process nodes. Subramani Kengeri, vice president of global design solutions at [getentity id="22819" comment="GlobalFoundries"], said 22nm FD-SOI will provide the same 30% improvement in PPA that has been c... » read more

Don’t Let The Headlines Trick You


This is the time of year when reports get issued summarizing the sales results of the server market in the first quarter. As a way of grabbing attention, many of the headlines will mention that the results of the first quarter are below those of the fourth quarter, bringing to mind all sorts of doomsday scenarios. Don’t be fooled. In many industries, sales exhibit a large seasonal compo... » read more

IP Integration Challenges Increase


Semiconductor Engineering sat down with Chris Rowen, CTO of [getentity id="22032" e_name="Cadence"]'s IP group; Rob Aitken, an [getentity id="22186" comment="ARM"] fellow; Patrick Soheili, vice president of product management and corporate development at [getentity id="22242" e_name="eSilicon"]; Navraj Nandra, senior director of marketing for DesignWare analog and mixed-signal IP at [getentity ... » read more

EDA Sales Strong Again


EDA and IP sales were robust again in Q1, up 7.5% to $1.877 billion compared with $1.746 billion in the same period in 2014, according to the EDA Consortium. On the upside, IP revenue rose 19.3% to $618.1 million; services revenue increased 6.8% to $104.4 million; and PCB and multi-chip module revenue increased 1.1% to $161.5 million. On the downside, CAE—the largest single category—... » read more

← Older posts Newer posts →