IJTAG or IEEE 1687 has been approved as a new IEEE standard on 3 November 2014. It is a lot like JTAG but with a common protocol for communicating with the different blocks within a design. Mentor Graphics already have tools for this.
Category: ASIC
MPW tool from eSilicon
A free online tool that delivers instant, executable quotes for MPWs is presented by eSilicon.
New dimensions, new defects and new solutions
With new smaller dimensions we will see new types of faults. In the FinFet, defects within the cells must be examined. It may not be enough to do this only with at speed tests.
FinFET – Image from wikimedia
Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.
Synopsys has presented a new method of Slack-based Transition Testing where they use the timing information from their STA tool (PrimeTime) when generating vectors with their ATPG-tool (TetraMAX).
GlobalFoundries and IBM confirmed
The rumor was true. GlobalFoundries takes over IBM’s chip business and gets paid $1.5 billion. IBM press release.
GlobalFoundries takes over IBM’s semiconductor division
Big semiconductor news (if it is true). GlobalFoundries “buys” IBM’s semiconductor division and gets $1.5 Billion.