January 2016 - Page 7 of 10 - Semiconductor Engineering


Transistor-Level Verification Returns


A few decades ago, all designers did transistor-level verification, but they were quite happy to say goodbye to it when standard cells provided isolation at the gate-level and libraries provided all of the detailed information required, such as timing. A few dedicated people continued to use the technology to provide those models and libraries and the most aggressive designs that wanted to stri... » read more

Smart Data Acceleration


As an industry, if real progress is to be made towards the level of computing that the future mandates, then the way computing problems are attacked must change. The von Neumann execution model has and will continue to serve us well, but additional techniques must be brought to bear. The next logical focus area is data—how it is accessed, and how it is transformed into real information—t... » read more

Developing Effective Design Strategies For Today’s Wearable Devices: Power Management


As the next wave of wearable devices expands into a new class of revolutionary and innovative products, there will be a growing importance placed on the real-time operating system (RTOS) and corresponding middleware. Wearable System-on-Chip (SoC) processors require an operating system optimized for size and performance with power-efficient wireless connectivity options needed for machine-to-mac... » read more

True Random Number Generators For Truly Secure Systems


Random numbers form the basis, or root, of most security systems. Yet the methods for generating random numbers vary widely in practice as well as efficacy. Over time, many popular randomization algorithms and circuit implementations have been shown to be provably flawed. The paper will examine current methods for generating random numbers based on various sources of entropy as well as their as... » read more

Blog Review: Jan. 13


Is it time for one of the Seven Wonders to return? In this week's top engineering and tech picks, Ansys' Justin Nescott highlights a project to rebuild the Colossus of Rhodes. Plus, new tech for cars and a hoodie for taking naps. From CES, Rambus' Aharon Etengoff expands on a talk about intelligent transportation systems and the need to balance technology which could help reduce accidents wi... » read more

Manufacturing Bits: Jan. 12


World’s smallest magnet The University of Tokyo has developed what researchers claim is the world's smallest nano-magnet. The nano-size ferrite magnet consists of iron oxide. With the material, researches devised a 7.5nm structure with magnetic properties. [caption id="attachment_24751" align="alignleft" width="300"] Charting the world's smallest magnet (Source: Shin-ichi Ohkoshi)[/ca... » read more

Power/Performance Bits: Jan. 12


Incandescent bulbs might not be dead yet Can incandescent bulbs be as efficient – or even more so – than LEDs? More than 95 percent of the energy that goes into incandescents is wasted, most of it as heat, so researchers at MIT and Purdue University struck out to see if that could be changed. A conventional heated metal filament, with all its attendant losses, served as the basis. But... » read more

System Bits: Jan. 12


Coaxing human stem cells to form human organs In a step toward personalized drug testing, MIT researchers have coaxed human stem cells to form complex tissues in a new technique, which also has near-term implications for growing organ-like tissues on a chip and that may ultimately allow personalized organs to be grown for transplant patients. The researchers said growing organs on demand, u... » read more

Equipment Sales Were Mixed Bag In 2015


Semiconductor equipment billings were up in Q3 of 2015, the most recent statistics available from SEMI, compared with Q3 of 2014. The strongest growth was reported in China, which grew 63%, and Taiwan, which was up 22%. Billings in North America were down 23%, while in Korea they were down 22%. Europe was down 36%. Japan was up 2%, which is consistent with the growth seen in recent EDA C... » read more

Executive Insight: Sehat Sutardja


Sehat Sutardja, chairman and CEO of Marvell, sat down with Semiconductor Engineering to talk about new approaches for design and memory and why costs and time to market are forcing changes in Moore's Law. What follows are excerpts of that conversation. SE: What was behind your move into modular packaging? Sutardja: The cost of building chips is getting out of hand. As we make things more ... » read more

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