Alternative Text

Ann Mutschler

  (all posts)
Ann Mutschler is executive editor at Semiconductor Engineering.

Author's Latest Posts

Power Now First-Order Concern In More Markets
By Ann Mutschler - 10 Mar, 2022 - Comments: 0

Concerns about energy and power efficiency are becoming as important as performance in markets where traditionally there has been a significant gap, setting the stage for significant shifts in both chip architectures and in how those ICs are designed in the first place. This shift can be seen in a growing number of applications and vertical segments. It includes mobile devices, where batteri... » read more

Preparing For Test Early In The Design Flow
By Ann Mutschler - 02 Mar, 2022 - Comments: 0

Until very recently, semiconductor design, verification, and test were separate domains. Those domains have since begun to merge, driven by rising demand for reliability, shorter market windows, and increasingly complex chip architectures. In the past, products were designed from a functional perspective, and designers were not concerned about what the physical implementation of the product ... » read more

Data Center Architectures In Flux
By Ann Mutschler - 24 Feb, 2022 - Comments: 0

Data center architectures are becoming increasingly customized and heterogeneous, shifting from processors made by a single vendor to a mix of processors and accelerators made by multiple vendors — including system companies' own design teams. Hyperscaler data centers have been migrating toward increasingly heterogeneous architectures for the past half decade or so, spurred by the rising c... » read more

CFD Playing Increasing Role In Design
By Ann Mutschler - 10 Feb, 2022 - Comments: 0

With thermal issues and constraints increasing becoming integral concerns of electronics design, computational fluid dynamics technology is gaining traction as a way to model, analyze, predict, and ideally prevent thermal problems from materializing. From cooling a board to cooling a chip with a fan and heat sinks, all of this relies on air flow for the cooling, or the flow of liquid in some... » read more

Design Challenges Increasing For Mixed-Die Packages
By Ann Mutschler - 09 Feb, 2022 - Comments: 0

The entire semiconductor ecosystem is starting to tackle a long list of technology and business changes that will be needed to continue scaling beyond Moore's Law, making heterogeneous combinations of die easier, cheaper, and more predictable. There are a number of benefits to mixing die and putting them together in a modular way. From a design standpoint, this approach provides access to th... » read more

Data Security Challenges In Automotive
By Ann Mutschler - 03 Feb, 2022 - Comments: 1

Automakers are scrambling to prevent security breaches and data hacks in new vehicles while simultaneously adding new and increasingly autonomous features into vehicles that can open the door to new vulnerabilities. These two goals are often at odds. As with security in any complex system, nothing is ever completely secure. But even getting a handle on this multilayered issue is a challenge.... » read more

A New Dimension Of Complexity For IC Design
By Ann Mutschler - 27 Jan, 2022 - Comments: 0

Full 3D designs involving logic-on-logic are still in the tire-kicking stage, but gaps in the tooling already are showing up. This is especially evident with static timing analysis (STA), which is used to validate a design’s timing performance by checking all possible paths for timing violations. STA issues began popping up particularly with the introduction of hybrid bonding, a bumpless p... » read more

MIPI Standards Gaining Traction In New Markets
By Ann Mutschler - 26 Jan, 2022 - Comments: 0

An explosion of low-cost, high-performance image sensors for a growing number of applications is propelling the MIPI interface into a variety of new markets, where standardized signal protocols and characteristics are becoming essential. For years, MIPI has been almost synonymous with mobile phones. But as higher-resolution image sensors increasingly are deployed in automotive, AI, IoT, and ... » read more

Automotive Outlook: 2022
By Ann Mutschler - 06 Jan, 2022 - Comments: 0

The auto industry is widening its focus this year, migrating to new architectures that embrace better security, faster data movement, and eventually more manageable costs. The auto industry is facing both short-term and long-term challenges. In the short term, the chip shortage continues to top the list of concerns for the world's automakers. That shortage has delayed new vehicle deliveries,... » read more

Domain-Specific Design Drives EDA Changes
By Ann Mutschler - 03 Jan, 2022 - Comments: 0

The chip design ecosystem is beginning to pivot toward domain-specific architectures, setting off a scramble among tools vendors to simplify and optimize existing tools and methodologies. The move reflects a sharp slowdown in Moore's Law scaling as the best approach for improving performance and reducing power. In its place, chipmakers — which now includes systems companies — are pushing... » read more

← Older posts Newer posts →

  • Sponsors

About

Navigation

Connect With Us

Copyright ©2013-2024 SMG   |  Terms of Service  |  Privacy Policy