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Ann Mutschler

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Ann Mutschler is senior executive editor at Semiconductor Engineering.

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The LP R&D Ecosystem
By Ann Mutschler - 12 Feb, 2015 - Comments: 0

I don’t know about you, but I’m always fascinated to learn new things about chip design. New techniques for power reduction, new ways to use existing tools, new tools in general. Some of this is happening at universities, some in happening in industry consortiums or partnerships, and despite what some people say from time to time, there is still innovation happening within the EDA companie... » read more

The Art Of LP Analog
By Ann Mutschler - 12 Feb, 2015 - Comments: 0

The best way to reduce power in analog chips is to make architectural changes or adopt a new architecture for the individual block. However, there are also some design techniques used to reduce power in analog circuitry. Unlike digital circuitry, which allows an engineer to leverage a low power library and optimize through a constraints file with the EDA software to reduce power, the same do... » read more

Power Management Verification Requires Holistic Approach
By Ann Mutschler - 12 Feb, 2015 - Comments: 0

Semiconductor Engineering sat down to discuss power management [getkc id="10" kc_name="Verification"] issues with Arvind Shanmugavel, senior director, applications engineering at [getentity id="22021" e_name="Ansys-Apache"]; Guillaume Boillet, technical marketing manager at [getentity id="22026" e_name="Atrenta"]; Adam Sherer, verification product management director at [getentity id="22032" e_... » read more

System Bits: Feb. 10
By Ann Mutschler - 10 Feb, 2015 - Comments: 0

Mapping temperature Given that overheating is a major problem for chips today a team of UCLA and USC scientists have made a breakthrough that they believe should enable engineers to design microprocessors that minimize that problem with a thermal imaging technique that can see how the temperature changes from point to point inside the smallest electronic circuits. The technique is called pl... » read more

FD-SOI Meets The IoT
By Ann Mutschler - 05 Feb, 2015 - Comments: 1

Silicon-on-insulator manufacturing technology has been discussed for many years. IBM has used the partially depleted variation of SOI in its server products, but the fully depleted version has yet to find widespread adoption outside of mil/aero and automotive markets. That may change soon as applications in the Internet of Things ramp, given the requirements for ultra low power and low cost.... » read more

Use IoT Security Concerns To Your Benefit
By Ann Mutschler - 05 Feb, 2015 - Comments: 0

Did you know data scientists can now link Instagram posts and other meta-data to credit card purchases? Indeed, MIT researchers said recently that just four fairly vague pieces of information — the dates and locations of four purchases — are enough to identify 90 percent of the people in a data set recording three months of credit-card transactions by 1.1 million users. They stresse... » read more

Si2 Leadership Change
By Ann Mutschler - 03 Feb, 2015 - Comments: 0

Steve Schulz, who had been president and CEO of standards body Si2 for the past 12 years has resigned from the organization, Semiconductor Engineering learned today. He said he has thoroughly enjoyed the 12-1/2 years that he was with Si2 and is very, very proud of the successes from rebuilding it when he first joined and all of the growth the organization has had. “I still have a lot o... » read more

System Bits: Feb. 3
By Ann Mutschler - 03 Feb, 2015 - Comments: 0

A viable silicon substitute A new study by UC Berkeley, the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) moves graphene a step closer to knocking silicon off as the dominant workhorse of the electronics industry. They reminded that while silicon is ubiquitous in semiconductors and integrated circuits, researchers have been eyeing graphene, a one-atom... » read more

Automotive System Design Challenges
By Ann Mutschler - 29 Jan, 2015 - Comments: 0

The automotive semiconductor market did exceptionally well last year. IHS reported strong vehicle production growth and increased semiconductor content in 2014, and that trend is likely to continue with semiconductor revenue for the automotive segment to reach $31 billion this year, up from $29 billion last year. The market research company affirmed the fastest growing segments for automoti... » read more

System Bits: Jan. 27
By Ann Mutschler - 27 Jan, 2015 - Comments: 0

Optimizing algorithms Optimization algorithms try to find the minimum values of mathematical functions, and are everywhere in engineering for such things as evaluating design tradeoffs, assessing control systems, finding patterns in data, among other things. A way to solve a difficult optimization problem is to first reduce it to a related but much simpler problem, then gradually add complexit... » read more

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