editor's blog
Subscribe Now

Main Event or Non-Event?

I had a nice talk with one of my favorite chip companies the other day. Two chip companies, in fact. Seems they’d developed some sort of new product and wanted to tell me about it. Okay. Sounds fun. Sign me up.

Except that the chip they described was already four years old.

Confused, I asked, “Uh, so what’s the news here? What are we announcing?”

“It’s our differentiating joint collaboration” was the answer. That set off all kinds of mental alarms. Warning: buzzword alert! Marketing hype incoming!

It seems that what the two companies had actually done was make Company A’s chip work better with Company B’s chip. Neither chip was new, and admittedly many engineers had used them together already. Nevertheless, both companies felt there was room for improvement.

On one hand, I felt like this was a non-event. Neither company had produced a new chip, or even much new software, so there was no “product” in the usual sense.

On the other hand, both sides had expended some real ergs in making the integration of the two chips go more smoothly, and that ought to be worth something. Even if we don’t know what problem(s) they were solving, they seem confident they’ve smoothed the path for us, and that deserves some credit.

What’s your view? Is this just marketing hand-waving or have these guys provided a real service?

Leave a Reply

featured blogs
Mar 21, 2023
Let's catch you up on what's been going on here at Cadence Fidelity CFD. Events You can find these at any time by going to the Events page on cadence.com and selecting CFD from the Technology menu. NVIDIA GTC, 20-23 Mar Join us virtually at the NVIDIA GTC Developers...
Mar 21, 2023
We explain computational lithography and explore how our partnership with NVIDIA accelerates semiconductor scaling and the chip design flow in the AI age. The post How Synopsys and NVIDIA Are Accelerating Semiconductor Scaling in the AI Age appeared first on New Horizons for...
Mar 10, 2023
A proven guide to enable project managers to successfully take over ongoing projects and get the work done!...

featured video

First CXL 2.0 IP Interoperability Demo with Compliance Tests

Sponsored by Synopsys

In this video, Sr. R&D Engineer Rehan Iqbal, will guide you through Synopsys CXL IP passing compliance tests and demonstrating our seamless interoperability with Teladyne LeCroy Z516 Exerciser. This first-of-its-kind interoperability demo is a testament to Synopsys' commitment to delivering reliable IP solutions.

Learn more about Synopsys CXL here

featured chalk talk

Prognostic Health Management/Predictive Maintenance Solutions for Machines
Sponsored by Mouser Electronics and Advantech
Prognostic health management, also known as predictive maintenance, is a vital component of our industrial ecosystem. In this episode of Chalk Talk, Amelia Dalton chats with Eric Wang from Advantech about the roles that data acquisition, data processing and artificial intelligence play in prognostic health management, the challenges of building these types of systems, and what kind of predictive maintenance solution would be the best fit for your next design.
Aug 18, 2022
26,892 views