March 2009 - Page 2 of 2 - Semiconductor Engineering

Advanced Materials: Mapping A Path To Low-Power Devices
By Cheryl Ajluni - 15 Mar, 2009 - Comments: 1

By Cheryl Ajluni For many electronics devices, especially those utilized in mobile applications, achieving low power is the Holy Grail. Unfortunately this goal is one that is not easily attained. In accordance with Moore’s Law, transistor density is continuing to increase. With each scaling, transistors are being designed smaller and faster to realize increased chip performance. But the risi... » read more

Minimizing Power Consumption In Next-Generation Mobile Devices
By Cheryl Ajluni - 13 Mar, 2009 - Comments: 0

By Cheryl Ajluni Today’s consumers continually demand ever more efficient and reliable means of mobile communication. At the same time, the wireless industry is evolving toward higher data rates and capacities. Both of these trends present a wealth of opportunity for innovative system engineers looking to design the next generation of mobile communication devices. They also pose some inter... » read more

On, Off and Mostly Off
By Ed Sperling - 13 Mar, 2009 - Comments: 0

<p>By Ed Sperling</p> <p>System-on-chip architecture has always been about getting the most performance out of a device, and the basic premise is that when you turn on a device it is always on.</p> <p>That approach has been challenged over the past few years with a fundamental shift toward more of the design being in the ‘off’ position. Aside from reversi... » read more

Writing Application Software Directly To The Metal
By Ed Sperling - 13 Mar, 2009 - Comments: 0

By Ed Sperling How necessary is an operating system? That question would have been considered superfluous a decade ago, possibly even blasphemous and career-limiting. But it now is beginning to surface in low-power discussions, particularly in compute-intensive applications where performance and power are both critical. General-purpose operating systems constantly call on the processor fo... » read more

Verifying Low-Power IP And Designs
By Ed Sperling - 13 Mar, 2009 - Comments: 0

By Ed Sperling Verification has always been the time-consuming part of designs. Even at 120nm and above, where power wasn’t much of an issue, verification accounted for an estimated 70 percent of the non-recurring engineering expense in a chip. Since then, the tools to automate design have become more effective, but the complexity of designs has grown by leaps and bounds beyond those tools.... » read more

Low-Power Standards War
By Ann Mutschler - 13 Mar, 2009 - Comments: 0

To the uninitiated, establishing a technology standard may seem straightforward. In reality, the process is mired with technical and political issues as evidenced by the ongoing battle for a de facto low-power design standard between the Unified Power Format (UPF) and the Common Power Format (CPF).   Currently, UPF is with the IEEE for final ratification as P1801, set for vote this month, ... » read more

Plumbing 101: Current Leakage And What to Do About It
By Brian Fuller - 13 Mar, 2009 - Comments: 0

By Brian Fuller Rising demand for mobile products and the march of Moore’s Law have created conditions for a perfect storm that threatens to swamp electronics designs and the market growth those designs target. The catalyst for that storm is leakage, which worsens the smaller devices become. Even in an “off” state, systems can leak like poorly insulated houses. But as the nation think... » read more

A Leap Of Faith
By Ed Sperling - 12 Mar, 2009 - Comments: 0

Complexity isn’t always bad. The key is being able to deal with it intelligently and economically.   Systems engineers are in the middle of one of the most complex periods in chip development. In the past, they typically had to deal with one problem at a time. At 1 micron, the wall was lithography. At 90 nanometers, it was low-k dielectric insulation (and yes, copper interconnects and 30... » read more

Must-Have Tools For Engineers
By Ed Sperling - 12 Mar, 2009 - Comments: 0

It may be one of the best equipped system-development labs on Earth, but it's largely used to create designs that aren't used on this planet. [youtube vid=khCj-7ftAzw] » read more

The Downturn’s Impact On Startups
By Ed Sperling - 05 Mar, 2009 - Comments: 0

The strong get stronger in a downturn for reasons that aren’t readily apparent at the outset of the slump.   First of all, contracts that are in place at the outset typically don’t get canceled—at least not at first, and frequently not at all. In the system-level design world, those contracts can last as long as 18 to 24 months. Even if the number of derivative chips is scaled back, ... » read more

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