Category Archives: silicon valley

Apple is chasing down Exxon

Apple just became the most valuable tech company in the the world, surpassing Microsoft. It is now chasing ExxonMobil, the most valuable company in the world and the only one ahead of it. Apple is valued at $291B and with … Continue reading

Posted in investment, silicon valley | Comments Off

One year on

It is the one-year anniversary of Obama’s inauguration and so I decided I’d look back at the blog entry that I wrote a year ago to see how well it has stood up. I called out a couple of big … Continue reading

Posted in silicon valley | Comments Off

Shake that EDA malaise

I have a sort of op-ed piece in Electronic Design today. Anybody who has been following my musing here (and, yes, I know I’ve not mused very much recently; must muse more ) won’t be surprised by anything I say. … Continue reading

Posted in eda industry, silicon valley | Comments Off

Silicon Valley RIP?

Here’s a quote from Tom Siebel, the founder of Siebel Systems that pioneered customer-relationship management before Salesforce.com started to eat their lunch and Oracle bought them. “I think Silicon Valley has been toppled from its pedestal. I think information technology … Continue reading

Posted in silicon valley | Comments Off

Getting out of EDA

Over the last year I’ve had lots of meetings with people who used to work in EDA and have lost their jobs, or, in some cases, still have a job but want to make a longer term change. The subject … Continue reading

Posted in eda industry, silicon valley | Comments Off

Public affluence, private squalor

Somebody in a comment earlier this week said that I was especially turned off by unions in a post talking about California. Unions actually behave just the way that you would expect them to, to maximize their own power. The … Continue reading

Posted in silicon valley | Comments Off

Where does everyone come from?

Where does all the brainpower that drives Silicon Valley come from? The answer, by and large, is not from round here. A good analogy I saw recently was with Hollywood. Where do all those pretty young actresses come from? By … Continue reading

Posted in silicon valley | Comments Off

Cadence, Avant!, SPC and Mitch

The big picture story of Cadence and Avant! is well known. Some Cadence employees left to create Avant! (initially called Arcsys) and stole Cadence source code. Cadence told the district attorney, Avant! was raided, and after several years delay, everyone … Continue reading

Posted in silicon valley | Comments Off

San Francisco: Silicon Valley’s dormitory

San Francisco is a dormitory town for Silicon Valley. Not completely, of course. But unless you regularly drive between Mountain View and San Francisco you probably aren’t aware of the huge fleet of buses that now drives people from San … Continue reading

Posted in silicon valley | Comments Off

50th anniversary of the IC

On Friday the IEEE unveiled a plaque commemorating the 50th anniversary of the first practical IC, which was created at Fairchild’s original building at 844 Charleston Road in Mountain View (it’s just off San Antonio Road near 101). The plaque … Continue reading

Posted in silicon valley | Comments Off