October 2013 - Page 4 of 10 - Semiconductor Engineering


Lessons From The Big Apple


Apple this week announced some big changes in their product lineup. Having already released their MacBook Air with the power-sipping Intel Haswell processor, Apple has made further strides with an operating system upgrade that extends battery life by yet another 10% to 15%. For those deep into technology, you may already know that low-power design capability wasn’t created overnight. It h... » read more

Verification 2.0: From Tool To Flow


Recently, Cadence held a System-to-Silicon Verification Summit at which companies like Broadcom, Zenverge, NVIDIA, and Ambarella shared their experiences and visions for verification. In one of the keynotes, Brian Bailey shared his vision of how verification would transition from tools to flows. Brian’s presentation was quite insightful. He started with a brief status of where we are curre... » read more

Blog Review: Oct. 23


It was a good week for good questions. Cadence’s Brian Fuller asks what applications dream about—or rather what’s their potential. In the context of technology development, that’s worth pondering. Mentor’s Mike Jensen asks what will you be remembered for. There are a couple other important addendums to that, such as how long you will be remembered. And perhaps even more important, ... » read more

Power/Performance Bits: Oct. 22


Thermal emitter improves solar cell efficiency Stanford University scientists have created a heat-resistant thermal emitter -- an element used in specialized solar cells -- that could significantly improve the efficiency of the cells. The heat-resistant thermal emitter is designed to convert heat from the sun into infrared light that can be absorbed by solar cells to make electricity – a tec... » read more

System Bits: Oct. 22


Untangled nanotubes Carbon nanotubes are lightweight, strong and conduct electricity, which make them ideal components in new electronics devices, such as tablet computers and touchscreen phones, but cannot be used without being separated out from their natural tangled state. Researchers from Imperial College London have developed a way to unravel and apply carbon nanotubes in the laboratory a... » read more

Manufacturing Bits: Oct. 22


Natural lithography For years, researchers have been exploring the development of nanosphere lithography or natural lithography. Nanosphere lithography makes use of directed self-assembly (DSA) techniques. The process begins with self-assembly of a nanosphere mask onto a substrate. This is followed by deposition of a material through the mask. The University of Paderborn has put a new twis... » read more

HDMI 2.0 Specification For 4K TV Unveiled


A new standard for transmitting and receiving 4K video is now public. HDMI 2.0 has a maximum data rate of up to 18Gbps, which is about 76% faster than the previous specification. Steve Venuti, president of HDMI Licensing, introducing the standard. HDMI version 2.0, which was developed by the HDMI Forum, provides a maximum of 4K HD @ 50/60 Hz, 32 audio channels, an audio sampling frequ... » read more

TSVs: Welcome To The Era Of Probably Good Die


Among the challenges of a widespread adoption of 3D ICs is how to test them, particularly when it comes to through-silicon vias (TSVs). While not necessarily presenting a roadblock, TSVs use in the mainstream will almost certainly change traditional test strategies. In fact for many chipmakers looking to stack their silicon, they may come to rely less on the traditional known good die (KGD) ... » read more

Experts At The Table: Debug


By Ed Sperling Semiconductor Engineering sat down with Galen Blake, senior verification engineer at Altera; Warren Stapleton, senior fellow at Advanced Micro Devices; Stephen Bailey, director of solutions marketing at Mentor Graphics; Michael Sanie, senior director of verification marketing at Synopsys. What follows are excerpts of that conversation. SE: The amount of IP is increasing and i... » read more

Where’s The Juice?


Driving to work in an electric car is cool. Finding an available plug these days is not. A year ago, before the surge (no pun intended) in electric vehicle popularity, it used to be relatively easy to find a parking spot and a plug at most high-tech companies. In fact, sometimes it was the only available spot. In recent months that’s changed. It’s getting harder and much more stressful. ... » read more

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