Monthly Archives: May 2009

Friday puzzle: sphere

Last week’s puzzle was about a man who went on a triangular walk and shoots a bear. The well-known solution is that the man must be at the North Pole (since the triangle returns him to his starting place) so … Continue reading

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T.J.Rodgers goes to Washington

You may have noticed, or maybe not, that on Fridays I often go off-topic. I still keep one foot in the technology space (no Brad and Jen or whoever it is now; no recipes…yet). But definitely less on-topic about design, … Continue reading

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Another look at internal development

I’ve talked before about internal development, by which I mean semiconductor companies developing their own tools. I just don’t think that it is going to happen in a big way. In the early 1980s VLSI design techniques were being disseminated … Continue reading

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Why are VCs so greedy?

Why are venture capitalists so greedy? Why do they want a 20-30X return on their money? Why doesn’t investing $5M and selling the company for $15M a couple of years later make them happy? After all, when I’ve bought a … Continue reading

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Strategic errors

In the time I was at VLSI, we made a couple of strategic errors relating to EDA. It is perhaps unfair to characterize them this way since it is only with hindsight that the view is clear. First a bit … Continue reading

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Friday puzzle: bear

Last week’s puzzle was to continue the infinite series 110, 20, 12, 11, 10… The answer is that the subsequent terms are all 6. The series consists of the number 6 in binary, base 3, base 4 and so on. … Continue reading

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Finger in the nose

It’s interesting how certain phrases catch the popular imagination and almost overnight become clichés, appearing in all sorts of writing. The best of these phrases have the twin benefits that they are both memorable and also immediately communicate the point … Continue reading

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What should Cadence do?

Cadence is at an interesting crossroads right now. The current management team is trying very hard to re-establish Cadence as a technology leader and rebuild partnership relations with their long-term customers, many of whom have been deep partners since the … Continue reading

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Tales of CDMA

It is very rare for a company to develop a new standard and establish it as part of  creating differentiation. Usually companies piggy-back their wares on existing standards and attempt to implement them better than the competition in some way. … Continue reading

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Oasys

I see a fair number of EDA startups. Most of them have some potentially innovative technology that solves a problem that is getting or going to get worse at future process nodes. But it is really hard to assess whether … Continue reading

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