Adam Kovac

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Adam Kovac is a technology editor at Semiconductor Engineering.

Author's Latest Posts

Chiplet Interconnects Add Power And Signal Integrity Issues
By Adam Kovac - 12 Dec, 2024 - Comments: 0

The flexibility and scalability offered by chiplets make them an increasingly attractive choice over planar SoCs, but the rollout of increasingly heterogeneous assemblies adds a variety of new challenges around the processing and movement of data. Nearly all of the chiplets in use today were designed in-house by large systems companies and IDMs. Going forward, third-party chiplets will begin... » read more

Tools Needed To Track, Catalog Hardware Vulnerabilities
By Adam Kovac - 05 Dec, 2024 - Comments: 0

Monitoring for cyberattacks is a key component of hardware-based security, but what happens afterward is equally important. Logging and cataloging identified hardware vulnerabilities to ensure they are not repeated is essential for security. In fact, thousands of weak points have been identified as part of the chip design process, and even posted publicly online. Nevertheless, many companies... » read more

Where Cryptography Is Headed
By Adam Kovac - 05 Dec, 2024 - Comments: 0

Reports began surfacing in October that Chinese researchers used a quantum computer to crack military-grade AES 256-bit encryption. Those reports turned out to be wrong, but that did little to dampen concerns about what would happen if it was true. The looming threat of quantum computers breaking today's encryption, and the stockpiling of encrypted data in preparation for a time when it can ... » read more

How AI Is Transforming System Design
By Adam Kovac - 26 Nov, 2024 - Comments: 0

Experts At The Table: ChatGPT and other LLMs have attracted most of the attention in recent years, but other forms of AI have long been incorporated into design workflows. The technology has become so common that many designers may not even realize it’s a part of the tools they use every day. But its adoption is spreading deeper into tools and methodologies. Semiconductor Engineering sat down... » read more

LLMs Show Promise In Secure IC Design
By Adam Kovac - 21 Oct, 2024 - Comments: 0

The introduction of large language models into the EDA flow could significantly reduce the time, effort, and cost of designing secure chips and systems, but they also could open the door to more sophisticated attacks. It's still early days for the use of LLMs in chip and system design. The technology is just beginning to be implemented, and there are numerous technical challenges that must b... » read more

Security Concerns Weigh Down Open-Source EDA
By Adam Kovac - 10 Oct, 2024 - Comments: 0

Open-source EDA tools are free, readily available, and growing in numbers, but many chipmakers are wary of using them due to security concerns. On the plus side, proponents say these tools can help attract fresh new talent to chip design. Yet despite their spread online — GitHub alone has more than 140 EDA-specific repositories — using visible source code can provide new avenues of attac... » read more

The Cost Of EDA Data Storage And Processing Efficiency
By Adam Kovac - 09 Oct, 2024 - Comments: 0

Engineering teams are turning to the cloud to process and store increasing amounts of EDA data, but while the compute resources in hyperscale data centers are virtually unlimited, the move can add costs, slow access to data, and raise new concerns about sustainability. For complex chip designs, the elasticity of the cloud is a huge bonus. With advanced-node chips and packaging, the amount of... » read more

Devising Security Solutions For Hardware Threats
By Adam Kovac - 25 Sep, 2024 - Comments: 0

Experts At The Table: Hardware security has evolved considerably in recent years, but getting products to market is a challenge in an environment where threats are always evolving and rarely predictable. That’s especially true given the sheer volume and variety of products being introduced. Semiconductor Engineering sat down with a panel of experts at the Design Automation Conference in San F... » read more

Higher Density, More Data Create New Bottlenecks In AI Chips
By Adam Kovac - 12 Sep, 2024 - Comments: 0

Data movement is becoming a bigger problem at advanced nodes and in advanced packaging due to denser circuitry, more physical effects that can affect the integrity of signals or the devices themselves, and a significant increase in data from AI and machine learning. Just shrinking features in a design is no longer sufficient, given the scaling mismatch between SRAM-based L1 cache and digital... » read more

Security Improving For Low-Cost Hardware
By Adam Kovac - 05 Sep, 2024 - Comments: 0

Security has been a priority in software for decades, but only recently has it begun catching up in chips — particularly those in inexpensive devices. The disconnect is that while these devices are low-cost, they often are connected to the same networks as more sophisticated devices and repositories for valuable data. It's not unusual for the entry point in ransomware or distributed denial... » read more

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