Building AI SoCs


Ron Lowman, strategic marketing manager at Synopsys, looks at where AI is being used and how to develop chips when the algorithms are in a state of almost constant change. That includes what moves to the edge versus the data center, how algorithms are being compressed, and what techniques are being used to speed up these chips and reduce power. https://youtu.be/d32jtdFwpcE    ... » read more

Heterogeneous Cache Coherence Requires A Common Internal Protocol


Machine learning and artificial intelligence systems are driving the need for systems-on-chip containing tens or even hundreds of heterogeneous processing cores. As these systems expand in size and complexity, it becomes too difficult to manage data flow solely through software means. An approach that simplifies software while improving performance and power consumption is to implement hardware... » read more

Which Verification Engine?


Semiconductor Engineering sat down to discuss the state of verification with Jean-Marie Brunet, senior director of marketing for emulation at [getentity id="22017" e_name="Mentor, a Siemens Business"]; Frank Schirrmeister, senior group director for product management at [getentity id="22032" e_name="Cadence"]; Dave Kelf, vice president of marketing at [getentity id="22395" e_name="OneSpin Solut... » read more

Move Data Or Process In Place?


Should data move to available processors or should processors be placed close to memory? That is a question the academic community has been looking at for decades. Moving data is one of the most expensive and power-consuming tasks, and is often the limiter to system performance. Within a chip, Moore's Law has enabled designers to physically move memory closer to processing, and that has rema... » read more

CCIX – What And Why?


There are two significant issues with today’s I/O interconnects: high speed storage and networking applications need more bandwidth than currently available technologies provide, and co-processing/acceleration functions need cache coherency for faster access to memory in heterogeneous multi-processor systems. These requirements are driving the development of a new specification called Cache C... » read more

CCIX Enables Machine Learning


It takes a lot of technology to enable something like machine learning, and not all of it is as glamorous as neural network architectures and algorithms. Several levels below that is the actual hardware on which these run, and that brings us into the even less sexy world of interfaces. One such interface, the Cache Coherent Interconnect for Accelerators (CCIX), pronounced C6, aims to make th... » read more

Toward Better Accelerators


In the not-too-distant past, the standard mobile application processor architecture was the predominant one used for most System-on-Chip (SoC) designs, but that is rapidly changing as new systems and applications emerge in the post-mobile computing era. New requirements for autonomous driving are motivating technology innovations: Visual processing, deep neural networks and machine learning pla... » read more

Custom Hardware Thriving


In the early days of the IoT, predictions about the commoditization of hardware and the end of customized hardware were everywhere. Several years later, those predictions are being proven wrong. Off-the-shelf components have not replaced customized hardware, and software has not dictated all designs. In fact, in many cases the exact opposite has happened. And where software does play an elev... » read more

What Can Go Wrong In Automotive


Semiconductor Engineering sat down to discuss automotive engineering with Jinesh Jain, supervisor for advanced architectures in Ford’s Research and Innovation Center in Palo Alto; Raed Shatara, market development for automotive infotainment at [getentity id="22331" comment="STMicroelectronics"]; Joe Hupcey, verification product technologist at [getentity id="22017" e_name="Mentor Graphics"]; ... » read more

Overcoming The Limits Of Scaling


Semiconductor Engineering sat down to discuss the increasing reliance on architectural choices for improvements in power, performance and area, with [getperson id="11425" comment=" Sundari Mitra"], CEO of [getentity id="22535" comment="NetSpeed Systems"]; Charlie Janac, chairman and CEO of [getentity id="22674" e_name="Arteris"]; [getperson id="11032" comment="Simon Davidmann"] CEO of [getentit... » read more

← Older posts Newer posts →