Chip Industry Week in Review


Cadence plans to buy Hexagon AB's design and engineering business to accelerate expansion in physical AI and system design and analysis. Cadence will pay ~US$3.1 billion in cash and issue stock, with the deal expected to close in early 2026. PWC issued a 104-page in-depth analysis of semiconductor technology and markets, highlighting a broad swath of changes: $1T in annual revenue by 2030, ... » read more

Blog Review: September 3


Cadence's Sriram Sharma Kalluri compares convolutional neural networks (CNNs) and transformers to show how their different architectures give them particular strengths and why the choice between them depends on the specific task, the available data, and the computational resources. Siemens' John McMillan provides a primer on the major IC package types, how they influence system design, therm... » read more

Blog Review: August 27


Cadence's Pamula Sai Srinivas explains why clock tree synthesis is essential to ensuring that the clock signal is distributed in a way that helps achieve timing closure and maintain synchronization, performance, and reliability. Synopsys' Sajani Patel, Varun Agrawal, and Manuel Mota check out what's new in UCIe 3.0, including doubling the maximum data rate to 64 GT/s, runtime recalibration, ... » read more

Chip Industry Week In Review


The EU’s tariffs on semiconductors will not exceed 15%, according to Trump’s latest trade deal. In addition, the EU committed to purchasing at least $40 billion worth of U.S. AI chips as well as other investments. [FAQ is here.] Lifelines for Intel: Intel inked a deal to sell the U.S. government a 10% non-voting equity stake in its business, worth $8.9 billion. The stake will be fun... » read more

From Latency To Reaction: Simulating The Next Wafer Demand Inflection


The semiconductor industry faces an unprecedented paradox: AI demand is booming, fab investments are rising, yet wafer shipments remain stubbornly flat. What's driving this disconnect, and when will it break? As of mid-2025, the global silicon wafer market appears calm on the surface, but underlying structural tensions are quietly mounting. The demand for AI semiconductors remains resilient,... » read more

Blog Review: August 20


Cadence's Sriram Sharma Kalluri finds that time-of-flight sensors are poised to revolutionize ADAS by generating precise 3D point clouds that, particularly when combined with lidar, contribute to an exceptionally accurate and comprehensive understanding of the vehicle's surroundings. Synopsys' Igor Markov and other industry experts discuss how quantum computing is moving from research to p... » read more

Blog Review: Aug. 6


Cadence's Shyam Sharma checks out key features of the LPDDR6 specification, including data transfer speeds that can reach up to 14.4Gbps, two sub-channels per device, metadata built into the data packets, and row hammer mitigation. Synopsys' Frank Malloy and Vincent van der Leest describe the essential role that a hardware root of trust plays in providing a secure foundation for all other se... » read more

Chip Industry Week in Review


The U.S. government announced new import tariff actions and deals this week, including: The EU: 15% tariff on most goods including semiconductors. According to the EU's president, the action excludes semiconductor equipment. Copper: 50% tariff on all imports of semi-finished copper products and intensive copper derivative products, effective Aug. 1, but raw input material is excluded. ... » read more

Chip Industry Week in Review


Intel reported flat year-over year revenue for Q2, exceeding Wall Street's pessimistic expectations. In a message to employees, CEO Lip-Bu Tan said the company will: Cut about 15% of its staff, ending the year with about 75,000 employees, down from a high of nearly 132,000 in 2022; Scrap projects in Poland and Germany, consolidate other sites in central America and Southeast Asia, and s... » read more

AI, Product Lifecycle Management, Market Dynamics: Q&A With Jay Vleeschhouwer Of Griffin Securities 


In the world of EDA, Jay Vleeschhouwer, managing director of software research at Griffin Securities, needs no introduction. His presentation on the State of EDA is standing room only at the yearly Design Automation Conference (DAC). He recently agreed to a discussion with me where we talked about AI and EDA, an interesting development with product lifecycle management and global dynamics af... » read more

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