Author's Latest Posts


Blog Review: April 24


Cadence's Vatsal Patel notes the factors that make high-bandwidth memory ideal for AI, such as improved bandwidth and area from vertical stacking and power reduction features like data bus inversion. Synopsys' Rob van Blommestein points to early power network analysis as a way to ensure that enough power is delivered to each transistor to mitigate potential power-related issues within the ch... » read more

Research Bits: April 23


Probabilistic computer prototype Researchers at Tohoku University and the University of California Santa Barbara created a prototype of a heterogeneous probabilistic computer that combines a CMOS circuit with a limited number of stochastic nanomagnets. It aims to improve the execution of probabilistic algorithms used to solve problems where uncertainty is inherent or where an exact solution... » read more

Blog Review: April 17


Siemens' Sumit Vishwakarma highlights the importance of crystal oscillators to the proper functioning of many semiconductor devices and applications, from clock signals to transmission and reception of radio waves. Cadence's Jay Domadia introduces some of the new features in GDDR7, such as a semi-independent row and column command address bus and two modes of data signaling, enabling PAM3 fo... » read more

Research Bits: April 16


Tunable thermal conductivity in memristors Researchers from the Center for Research in Biological Chemistry and Molecular Materials (CiQUS) and Forschungszentrum Juelich discovered that oxide-based memristive devices can demonstrate tunable thermal conductivity. Alongside the memristor's electrical resistive switching, a thermal resistive switching effect also occurs at the metal-oxide inte... » read more

Startup Funding: March 2024


The challenge of moving data from place to place is increasingly a key concern for chip and system designers, and investors are taking note. Numerous startups developing interconnect technologies received significant backing in March, with approaches spanning chiplet-enabling PHYs, photonic fabrics for disaggregated compute and memory, and telecom transceiver modules. Several new startups la... » read more

Blog Review: April 10


Cadence's Shyam Sharma looks at the evolution of the LPDDR standard and finds that LPDDR5X is opening new specialized markets for low-power DRAMs beyond the traditional areas of mobile, IoT, and automotive. Siemens' Hossam Sarhan and Dusan Petranovic find that new physical verification approaches are needed to ensure the performance and reliability of superconducting ICs and introduce a hybr... » read more

Research Bits: April 8


Annealing processor Researchers from the Tokyo University of Science designed a scalable, fully-coupled annealing processor with 4096 spins on a single board with 36 CMOS chips, with parallelized capabilities for accelerated solving of combinatorial optimization problems. "We want to achieve advanced information processing directly at the edge, rather than in the cloud, or performing prepro... » read more

Blog Review: Apr. 3


Siemens' Keith Felton finds that high bandwidth memory integration poses significant challenges for package designers stemming from its unique architecture and stringent performance requirements. Synopsys' Gervais Fong finds out what's new in the USB4 v2 specification, some of its unique challenges involved in doubling the performance capabilities of the USB wired connection, and an intrigui... » read more

Research Bits: Apr. 2


Stretchy, sensitive circuits Researchers from Stanford University developed skin-like, stretchable integrated circuits capable of driving a micro-LED screen with a refresh rate of 60 Hz and detecting a braille array that is more sensitive than human fingertips. The stretchable transistors are made from semiconducting carbon nanotubes sandwiched between soft elastic electronic materials. The... » read more

Blog Review: Mar. 27


Cadence's Steve Brown suggests that multi-die technologies will be a key part of the path toward a faster, more efficient chip ecosystem that can support the compressed development cycles now emerging in the automotive industry. Synopsys' John Swanson, Madhumita Sanyal, and Priyank Shukla point to the role of simulation in ensuring seamless operation in the Ethernet ecosystem though rigorous... » read more

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