Did you know that one of the responsibilities of the US Commander-in-Chief is to keep an eye on robots? Yesterday, President Obama used this lighthearted introduction to promote the robotics work spearheaded by Carnegie Mellon University's National Robotics Engineering Center. What do full-fledged robotic systems, like the kind at the Carnegie center, have to do with semiconductor IP? This is what I wondered. After all, a robot is typically an electromechanical machine that is programmed and controlled by electronics. At first glance, it would seem that the only contribution to robotics from the semiconductor IP industry is on the electronics side, not the electrical or mechanical areas. Continue reading »

It’s funny how interface questions rarely have straight-forward answers. For example, ask ARM and OCP about interfaces for shared memory on heterogeneous multicore SoCs. Politics aside, there are reasons why the answer to that question leads to a variety of other questions. For one thing, the original question assumes an equivalence that does not exist. Read on, if you want the entangled details. Continue reading »

What to you think was the most commonly repeated phrase at this year’s Design Automation Conference (DAC)? Was it verification? Perhaps it was embedded SoCs? Or where is the beer? The phrase that I heard most often was “cache coherency,” thanks in large measure to an announcement from ARM and their huge ecosystem of partners. Still, as unexciting as this phrase may seem, the repetition did finally catch my attention. Continue reading »

The best part of any technical panel is the Question and Answer (Q&A) session, where the discussions become less scripted. Also, it’s where disagreements may occur among panelists that are generally in agreement. Let the final act begin! (Part III: Stop That Thief! – IP in Global Markets) Continue reading »

Expert panelists from Globalfoundries, IDT and the legal community share their experience from the use of leading edge and middle-edge IP technology to the dangers of outsourcing IP development and, finally, the legal struggles in emerging countries. This is Part II of the ongoing coverage from the DAC Pavillion Panel on IP security and quality issues in global markets. Continue reading »

Here are the essential opening remarks from the DAC Pavilion presentation on the development and integration of IP, delivered by Chipestimate’s General Manager, Adam Traidman. In Part II, noted panels from GlobalFoundries, IDT and the legal community will explore the technical, business, and legal challenges of cross-regional IP sourcing and associated worldwide business integrity challenges. Continue reading »

The importance of a comprehensive, low power design philosophy for all future microcontroller, microprocessors and server systems was the guiding theme behind Dr. John Heinlein’s opening presentation at the DAC “IP Talks” sessions. Continue reading »

Although not a specific topic at the Integrated Electrical Solutions Forum (IESF), growth of infotainment and control systems will require chip and FPGA IP. Continue reading »