Richard Returns, Reports on TSMC

Two quick points today:

1. Richard Goering (noted EDA journalist) is back online! He's been covering EDA for a long time and has interesting and credible insights. He's writing a blog for Cadence at Industry Insights.
2. I went to the TSMC Technology Symposium in San Jose last week. I've been going for the last few years. These are great for getting road maps of silicon process and design technologies (TSMC Reference Flow). I wasn't sure how much information I could share from the day, but Richard has solved my problem by writing a comprehensive report TSMC Views R&D As Ticket Out Of Recession.

   One announcement that I'd like to call attention to is TSMC's integrated sign-off flow. I'd like to take a look at it. It's initially created for 65nm sign-off, and sounds like a Reference Flow on steroids. Not only are there "approved" tools, but also recommended scripts (which EDA vendors also provide) and other libraries and technology files -- apparently a complete package. I'm curious to see how it differs from what we currently use. I might learn some new tricks.