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Ann Mutschler

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Ann Mutschler is senior executive editor at Semiconductor Engineering.

Author's Latest Posts

System Bits: Jan. 5
By Ann Mutschler - 05 Jan, 2016 - Comments: 0

Faster quantum dot entanglement Due to entanglement between distant quantum objects being an important ingredient for future information technologies, ETH Zurich researchers have developed a method with which such states can be created a thousand times faster than before. [caption id="attachment_24629" align="alignright" width="300"] In two entangled quantum objects the spins are in a super... » read more

Upcoming Hurdles For The Semiconductor Industry
By Ann Mutschler - 30 Dec, 2015 - Comments: 1

Semiconductor Engineering sat down to discuss upcoming challenges and hurdles to overcome for the semiconductor industry with Vic Kulkarni, senior vice president and general manager, RTL Power Business at Ansys; Chris Rowen, Fellow and CTO, IP Group at Cadence; Subramani Kengeri, vice president, Global Design Solutions at GLOBALFOUNDRIES; Simon Davidmann, CEO of Imperas Software; Michael Buehle... » read more

System Bits: Dec. 29
By Ann Mutschler - 29 Dec, 2015 - Comments: 0

Optoelectronics built using existing manufacturing Using only processes found in existing microchip fabrication facilities, researchers at MIT, the University of California at Berkeley, and the University of Colorado have produced a working optoelectronic microprocessor that computes electronically but uses light to move information. The researchers reminded that optical communications prom... » read more

System Bits: Dec. 23
By Ann Mutschler - 23 Dec, 2015 - Comments: 0

Building MEMS at one-hundredth the cost The microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) market was $12 billion business in 2014, dominated by a handful of devices, such as accelerometers that reorient the screens of most smartphones. However, researchers at MIT pointed out that potentially useful MEMS have languished in development because they don’t have markets large enough to justify the initia... » read more

Bridging Hardware And Software
By Ann Mutschler - 22 Dec, 2015 - Comments: 0

Since the advent of embedded systems there has been a struggle between hardware engineers trying to understand the mindset of their software counterparts, and vice versa. That struggle is alive and well today—and it's costing everyone money. This divide is rife with passion, territoriality and misunderstanding. It has delayed tapeouts, created errors and inefficiencies that take time and e... » read more

Why Test Is Changing
By Ann Mutschler - 22 Dec, 2015 - Comments: 0

Test is undergoing a revolution in terms of how it is perceived, how it is performed and where it is done. For years, test was something of an afterthought. It was a separate operation that was done after the design was finished, or it was a self-contained module that had to be characterized for power, heat and electrical effects, but not much else. As more chips find their way into markets ... » read more

System Bits: Dec. 15
By Ann Mutschler - 15 Dec, 2015 - Comments: 0

Building chips skyscraper style With the aim of boosting electronic performance by factor of a thousand, a team of researchers led by Stanford University engineers have created a skyscraper-like chip design, based on materials more advanced than silicon. For many years, computer systems have been designed with processors and memory chips laid out like single-story structures in a suburb whe... » read more

New Approaches To Low Power Design
By Ann Mutschler - 14 Dec, 2015 - Comments: 1

While Moore's Law continues to drive feature size reduction and complexity, a whole separate part of the industry is growing up around vertical markets in the IoT. While these two worlds may be different in many respects, they share one thing in common—low power design is critical to success. How engineering teams minimize power in each of these markets, and even within the same market, ca... » read more

How To Choose A Processor
By Ann Mutschler - 10 Dec, 2015 - Comments: 0

Choosing a processor might seem straightforward at first glance, but like many engineering challenges it's harder than it looks. When is a CPU better than a GPU, MCU, DSP or other type of processor? And for what design—or part of a design? For decades, the CPU has been the default choice. “It is deliberately designed to be pretty efficient at all tasks, is straightforward to program, ... » read more

The Power Of Software
By Ann Mutschler - 10 Dec, 2015 - Comments: 0

There is no argument about the increasing importance of software in system designs today, given the intimate and integral role it plays in directing the very hardware it is co-designed with. There is also a very good case for certain kinds of software that lend themselves more to certain types of processors. This, of course, depends on what is meant by the type of processor, asserted Coli... » read more

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