category: Top Stories

category: IoT, Security & Automotive

Will Domain-Specific ICs Become Ubiquitous?
By Brian Bailey - 16 May, 2024 - Comments: 0

Questions are surfacing for all types of design, ranging from small microcontrollers to leading-edge chips, over whether domain-specific design will become ubiquitous, or whether it will fall into the historic pattern of customization first, followed by lower-cost, general-purpose components. Custom hardware always has been a double-edged sword. It can provide a competitive edge for chipmake... » read more

Running More Efficient AI/ML Code With Neuromorphic Engines
By Karen Heyman - 16 May, 2024 - Comments: 0

Neuromorphic engineering is finally getting closer to market reality, propelled by the AI/ML-driven need for low-power, high-performance solutions. Whether current initiatives result in true neuromorphic devices, or whether devices will be inspired by neuromorphic concepts, remains to be seen. But academic and industry researchers continue to experiment in the hopes of achieving significant ... » read more

Power/Performance Costs In Chip Security
By Adam Kovac - 16 May, 2024 - Comments: 0

Hackers ranging from hobbyists to corporate spies and nation states are continually poking and prodding for weaknesses in data centers, cars, personal computers, and every other electronic device, resulting in a growing effort to build security into chips and electronic systems. The current estimate is that 60% of chips and systems have some type of security built in, and that percentage is ... » read more

Design Considerations In Photonics
By Karen Heyman - 01 May, 2024 - Comments: 0

Experts at the Table: Semiconductor Engineering sat down to talk about what CMOS and photonics engineers need to know to successfully collaborate, with James Pond, fellow at Ansys; Gilles Lamant, distinguished engineer at Cadence; and Mitch Heins, business development manager for photonic solutions at Synopsys. What follows are excerpts of that conversation. To view part one of this discussion,... » read more

Memory On Logic: The Good And Bad
By Brian Bailey - 11 Apr, 2024 - Comments: 0

The chip industry is progressing rapidly toward 3D-ICs, but a simpler step has been shown to provide gains equivalent to a whole node advancement — extracting distributed memories and placing them on top of logic. Memory on logic significantly reduces the distance between logic and directly associated memory. This can increase performance by 22% and reduce power by 36%, according to one re... » read more

Using AI/ML To Minimize IR Drop
By Ann Mutschler - 11 Apr, 2024 - Comments: 1

IR drop is becoming a much bigger problem as technology nodes scale and more components are packed into advanced packages. This is partly a result of physics, but it's also the result of how the design flow is structured. In most cases, AI/ML can help. The underlying problem is that moving to advanced process nodes, and now 3D-ICs, is driving current densities higher, while the power envelop... » read more

Linear Drive Optics May Reduce Data Latency
By Karen Heyman - 11 Apr, 2024 - Comments: 0

Optical and electrical are starting to cross paths at a much deeper level, particularly with the growing focus on 3D-ICs and AI/ML training in data centers, driving changes both in how chips are designed and how these very different technologies are integrated together. At the root of this shift are the power and performance demands of AI/ML. It can now take several buildings of a data cente... » read more

The Challenges Of Working With Photonics
By Karen Heyman - 01 Apr, 2024 - Comments: 0

Experts at the Table: Semiconductor Engineering sat down to talk about where photonics is most useful — and most vulnerable — with James Pond, fellow at Ansys; Gilles Lamant, distinguished engineer at Cadence; and Mitch Heins, business development manager for photonic solutions at Synopsys. What follows are excerpts of that conversation. To view part one of this discussion, click here. ... » read more

Optimizing Energy At The System Level
By Brian Bailey - 18 Mar, 2024 - Comments: 0

Power is a ubiquitous concern, and it is impossible to optimize a system's energy consumption without considering the system as a whole. Tremendous strides have been made in the optimization of a hardware implementation, but that is no longer enough. The complete system must be optimized. There are far reaching implications to this, some of which are driving the path toward domain-specific c... » read more

Backside Power Delivery Adds New Thermal Concerns
By Karen Heyman - 14 Mar, 2024 - Comments: 0

As the semiconductor industry gears up for backside power delivery at the 2nm node, implementation of the technology requires a re-thinking of established design practices. While some EDA tools are already qualified, designers must acquaint themselves with new issues, including making place-and-route more thermal-aware and how to manage heat dissipation with less shielding and thinner substr... » read more

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