Rethinking Competitive One Upmanship Among Foundries


The winner in the foundry business used to be determined by who got to the most advanced process node first. For the most part that benchmark no longer works. Unlike in the past, when all of the foundries and IDMs competed using basically the same process, each foundry has gone its own route. This is primarily due to the divergence of end markets, and the realization that as costs increase, ... » read more

Tech Talk: Analog Simplified


Benjamin Prautsch, Fraunhofer EAS' group manager for advanced mixed-signal automation, talks about how to simplify and speed up analog IP development, its role in IoT and IIoT/Industry 4.0, and why this is becoming so important for advanced packaging and advanced process nodes. https://youtu.be/6ISL1A7Wy_I » read more

True Costs Of Process Node Migration


Deciding when and how to make a process node transition is critical to business success. The solution that requires the least amount of total change—in the form of license configurations, required hardware resources, necessary tool qualifications, and adequate support infrastructure—will always be the most “inexpensive” option. Do you have all the information you need to make the right ... » read more

So Much For Pure Science


Math is supposed to be the pure science, but numbers appear to be far less pure than mathematicians let on. There are examples of this everywhere. Consider the latest process nodes. One foundry's 10nm is another foundry's 7nm. And 7nm isn't necessarily 7nm. It might be 7.5nm or 6.5nm. It's not so much that the measurements aren't accurate. It's how they're applied that causes the problem. ... » read more

The Real Value Of Digital Horsepower


Chipmakers and systems vendors are beginning to experiment with a slew of new ways to beef up performance and reduce power and area, now that shrinking features no longer guarantees those improvements. The number of new ideas introduced at industry conferences in the past few months is almost mind-boggling. Just on the CPU side there are new architectures that improve the amount of work that... » read more