The Week In Review: Manufacturing


IBM continues to cut jobs, according to IEEE Spectrum and an IBM employee organization. Meanwhile, IBM and SUNY Polytechnic Institute announced that more than 220 engineers and scientists who lead IBM's advanced chip R&D efforts at SUNY Poly's Albany Nanotech campus will become part of IBM Research. While military applications continue to experience strong growth in RF gallium-nitride (GaN)... » read more

The Week In Review: Design


Tools Cadence unveiled two new tools. The first is a rapid prototyping platform that the company claims will shorten bring-up time by 70%, with 4X improvements in capacity, with IEEE 1801 support for low-power verification through its emulation platform. The second is a single and multi-corner custom/analog extraction tool, which it claims will improve performance by 5X. The tool has been cert... » read more

The Week In Review: Design


Tools Synopsys rolled out a new version of its software technologies for static and formal verification, which it says increases performance by up to five times. Also new are improved debug and low-power verification with native power simulation, and an integrated IP portfolio. Cadence uncorked a new version of its PCB and packaging environment, which it says speeds up timing closure by as ... » read more

The Week In Review: Manufacturing


The smartphone market is maturing and slowing down. Now, according to International Data Corp. (IDC), the total tablet market, inclusive of both tablets and 2-in-1 devices, is forecast to grow 19.4% in 2014, down from a growth rate of 51.6% in 2013. IDC also reduced the 2014 forecast by -3.6% from its previous projection to 260.9 million units worldwide. The reduction in the short-term forecast... » read more

The Week In Review: Sept. 16


By Mark LaPedus In June, Crucial.com teamed up with Lou Ferrigno to invite all frustrated computer users to submit a short video showing their most fearsome, frustration-filled and computer-induced roar. Each video was evaluated according to a variety of factors, including volume, enthusiasm, perceived distress, frustration, anxiety, irritation and overall hopelessness. The memory module suppl... » read more

The Week In Review: Sept. 13


By Ed Sperling Cadence unveiled its next-generation emulation platform, greatly boosting the speed by up to 60x for embedded OS verification and by up to 10x for hardware/software verification. Overall, Cadence says the platform doubles verification productivity with a capacity of up to 2.3 billion gates. Cadence also reported that its mixed-signal LP flow allowed Silicon Labs to cut its MCU p... » read more

AMS Challenges Growing


By David Lammers Analog and mixed signal (MS) devices will play an ever-increasing role in saving energy, particularly as the “Internet of Things” expands to about 10 billion units per year over the next decade. But as leading-edge design rules scale to 28nm and below, enhanced with high-k/metal gate technologies, it is becoming increasingly challenging to integrate AMS devices on SoCs. ... » read more

The Ins And Outs Of Power Conversion


By Cheryl Ajluni Power conversion is a general term that refers to a system or device producing an output that is different than its input. It can assume many forms—everything from an inverter to an isolated power supply, uninterruptable power supply (UPS), or AC/DC converter. Power conversion, like low-power design, is fairly commonplace these days. Nevertheless, recent advances in digital ... » read more

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