Week In Review: Design, Low Power


Marvell will acquire Innovium, a provider of Ethernet data center switches, in an all-stock transaction valued at $1.1 billion. Innovium's switching architecture is optimized for ultra-low latency, optimized power, high performance, and telemetry in cloud applications and will join Marvell's portfolio of data center products to provide "architectural choice and flexibility to meet a diverse set... » read more

Week In Review: Auto, Security, Pervasive Computing


Automotive The New York Auto Show has been canceled due to concerns over the COVID-19 Delta variant. The show, which usually occurs in April, was scheduled for August 20 through 29th. Semiconductor company Qualcomm has offered to acquire Veoneer, an ADAS company, for $37 per share in cash. Automotive Tier 1 Magna International already has a definitive merger agreement to acquire Veoneer, wh... » read more

Retimers Replacing Redrivers As Signal Speeds Increase


Retimers are undergoing a renaissance as new PHY protocols prove too demanding for redrivers. Redrivers and retimers both have been used to extend wired signal reach over the years. But redrivers have dominated this space due to their relative simplicity and lower cost. That balance is beginning to change. “A retimer represents three things no one wants in their system — area, cost, a... » read more

Week In Review: Auto, Security, Pervasive Computing


Security The U.S. government agencies put out a warning that Russian military has been using a Kubernetes cluster to attempt distributed and anonymized brute force access against hundreds of government and private sector targets worldwide. Department of Homeland Security (DHS)’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the National S... » read more

Week In Review: Design, Low Power


Siemens Digital Industries Software acquired Nextflow Software, a provider of advanced particle-based computational fluid dynamics (CFD) solutions. Nextflow Software will become part of the Simcenter software portfolio, providing rapid meshless CFD capabilities to accelerate the analysis of complex transient applications in the automotive, aerospace, and marine industries such as gear box lubri... » read more

Week In Review: Auto, Security, Pervasive Computing


Pervasive computing — IoT, edge, cloud, data center, and back PC maker Dell Technologies is spinning off 81% equity ownership of VMWare to two standalone public companies. VMWare, founded in 1998, provides software to manage networking, apps, and cloud/data center. VMWare will pay a special dividend to its investing, which will generate $9.3 – $9.7 billion for Dell to use toward cutting it... » read more

Finding And Fixing Design And Testbench Coding Errors On The Fly


Two things are certain in chip verification: as many bugs as possible must be found and fixed before fabrication, and this must happen as early as possible in the development process. The much-desired “shift left” in verification requires that advanced analysis and debug technologies be available to engineers from the earliest stages of the project. It is preferable that many classes of err... » read more

Week In Review: Auto, Security, Pervasive Computing


Automotive/Mobility With the chip supply so tight it is shutting down automotive production lines, U.S. chip company CEOs signed a Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) letter asking the U.S. president to include funding incentives for the chip manufacturing in U.S. economic recovery plans. The letter references the CHIPS for America Act and asks the president to work with Congress to suppo... » read more

CEO Outlook: 2021


The new year will be one of significant transition and innovation for the chip industry, but there are so many new applications and market segments that broad generalizations are becoming less meaningful. Unlike in years past, where sales of computers or smart phones were a good indication of how the chip industry would fare, end markets have both multiplied and splintered, greatly increasin... » read more

Variation Threat In Advanced Nodes, Packages Grows


Variation is becoming a much bigger and more complex problem for chipmakers as they push to the next process nodes or into increasingly dense advanced packages, raising concerns about the functionality and reliability of individual devices, and even entire systems. In the past, almost all concerns about variation focused on the manufacturing process. What printed on a piece of silicon didn't... » read more

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