Author's Latest Posts


Using GPUs In Semiconductor Manufacturing


Massive simulation and curvilinear shapes are forcing the photomask industry to rethink what types of chips work best. Aki Fujimura, CEO of D2S, talks about what happens when shapes printed on a mask are closer to what actually gets printed, how GPUs can be used to accelerate CPUs in single instruction/multiple data (SIMD) operations, and why pixel data is different from other data. » read more

Week In Review: Manufacturing, Test


Onshoring and the supply chain Efforts to patch up supply chain weaknesses by moving more manufacturing onshore in the United States and Europe are generating a lot of buzz. Morris Chang, TMSC's founder, described those moves as "a very expensive exercise in futility," during an interview with the Brookings Institution and Center for Strategic and International Studies, adding that it is like... » read more

More Options, Less Dark Silicon


Chipmakers are beginning to re-examine how much dark silicon should be used in a heterogenous system, where it works best, and what alternatives are available — a direct result of a slowdown in Moore's Law scaling and the increasing disaggregation of SoCs. The concept of dark silicon has been around for a couple decades, but it really began taking off with the introduction of the Internet ... » read more

Speeding Up AI Algorithms


AI at the edge is very different than AI in the cloud. Salvador Alvarez, solution architect director at Flex Logix, talks about why a specialized inferencing chip with built-in programmability is more efficient and scalable than a general-purpose processor, why high-performance models are essential for getting accurate real-time results, and how low power and ambient temperatures can affect the... » read more

Silicon Lifecycle Management’s Growing Impact On IC Reliability


Experts at the Table: Semiconductor Engineering sat down to talk about silicon lifecycle management, how it's expanding and changing, and where the problems are, with Prashant Goteti, principal engineer at Intel; Rob Aitken, R&D fellow at Arm; Zoe Conroy, principal hardware engineer at Cisco; Subhasish Mitra, professor of electrical engineering and computer science at Stanford University; a... » read more

Better Video Compression


Video data is increasing, but bandwidth is not increasing quickly enough. One solution is to compress that data, but the challenge is to do that without impacting resolution. Rob Green, AMD’s senior manager for Pro AV, Broadcast & Consumer, talks about what’s changing in video compression, from new standards to better analytics, virtualization, what impact AR/VR will have, and a compari... » read more

Week In Review: Manufacturing, Test


Deals AMD plans to purchase cloud startup Pensando for about US $1.9 billion. In a presentation at the SEMI ISS conference this week, AMD CTO Mark Papermaster described Pensando's technology as a "highly programmable packet-processing engine that allows you to speed up systems designed for the data center." Intel, Micron, Analog Devices and MITRE Engenuity formed an alliance to accelerate c... » read more

Battery Management Getting Competitive For EVs


The success or failure of future electric vehicles will depend on where and how those cars are used, as well as significant advances in battery materials, energy density, and some very complex battery management systems. Battery power needs to be balanced, stored for extended times, and delivered to wherever it is needed most in real time. This is a huge challenge, and nearly everything in a... » read more

Common Weakness Enumeration


Understanding potential design vulnerabilities up front can help prevent future cyberattacks. Jason Oberg, CTO at Tortuga Logic, talks with Semiconductor Engineering about why CWE is so important, when it needs to be considered, and why no hardware design is completely bulletproof. » read more

Slowdown, But No Correction


The market for chips will continue to grow over the next few years, but not as quickly as over the past couple years when the work-at-home market drove up demand for everything from laptops and TVs to home video equipment. Economists painted a mixed picture for the semiconductor industry at this week's SEMI Industry Strategy Symposium, projecting continue growth in all major markets, but tem... » read more

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