Author's Latest Posts


Today’s Screen Culture Puts Higher Pressure On Display Chips


Just as cathode ray tube technology has been relegated to specialist industrial and medical settings, OLED (organic light-emitting diode) is overtaking LCD (liquid crystal display) in some applications due to its superior image quality and contrast. But OLED is not a one-size-fits-all. An array of new technologies is being developed to meet consumer demand for better, brighter screens with h... » read more

Navigating The Challenges Of Group Design Projects


All over the world, governments and industry have come together to solve large-scale chip design challenges. Groups such as the U.S. Department of Defense’s Microelectronics Hubs (ME Commons), the EU Chips Act pilot lines, and Japan’s government-backed Rapidus consortium often consist of established companies, research institutes, academia, and startups – each of which brings different sk... » read more

New Antennas And Advanced ICs Needed For 6G


6G is expected to bring data speeds that enable highly integrated and responsive technology in smartphones, homes, cities, and autonomous vehicles, but realizing that goal will require a lot more work. There will be many more antennas everywhere, embedded in infrastructure around town, in base stations, edge-devices, and everything in between. They will be sending and receiving many more sig... » read more

6G Line-Of-Sight Repeaters, Dots, And Reflections


6G will open the door to ultra-reliable, low-latency communications, extended broadband, and machine communications, but its rapid signal attenuation places some sharp limits on where and how it can be used, and requires some expensive options to overcome those limitations. Applications include lifelike virtual reality for home and work use, highly interactive smart homes and cities, and aut... » read more

Cloud vs. Edge Gaming: Performance Gap Is Shrinking


Chip designers and gaming companies are scrambling to figure out whether the gaming market will tilt toward the cloud, the edge, or some combination of both. Multi-gigabit internet allows more people to play high-end games in the cloud, but edge-based gaming consoles and devices remain well-rooted, more secure, and private. Which one wins? So far, there are more questions than answers. Handh... » read more

Government Funding For Chip Design Tools Spreads


Governments around the globe are starting to invest more heavily in chip design tools and related research as part of an effort to boost on-shore chip production, opening new opportunities for startups and established EDA companies. Those cash infusions, which are being doled out in the U.S., Europe, and Asia, are part of a growing recognition of the importance of design automation tools wit... » read more

Complex Mix Of Processors At The Edge


With AI changing so fast, it’s a juggle for companies to ensure they can deliver the best performance now while also future-proofing for unknown AI models or a completely different approach to training and inference that may emerge. There are a slew of options for high-end and budget phones, hyperscalers, and low-cost, low-power edge devices, and while GPUs keep making headlines, many designe... » read more

AI Drives More Realistic Gaming


Video games are utilizing artificial intelligence to create increasingly realistic scenarios and interactions, enabled by big increases in processing horsepower and memory, and significantly faster data movement. GPUs, once confined to graphics rendering, are now also being deployed across a wide range of AI tasks, generating more realistic non-player characters, dynamic worlds, personalized... » read more

For Chip Developers, HW/SW Co-Design Key To Data Center Efficiency


Data centers and high-performance computing (HPC) are the primary enablers of today’s power-hungry AI-driven technology, but chip designers, EDA vendors, and the data centers themselves have a long list of options available to them to help curb AI's power consumption. Chip designers play a critical role in ensuring energy efficient processing from the bottom up, whether that is hardware-so... » read more

AI Pushes High-End Mobile From SoCs To Multi-Die


Advanced packaging is becoming a key differentiator for the high end of the mobile phone market, enabling higher performance, more flexibility, and faster time to market than systems on chip. Monolithic SoCs likely will remain the technology of choice for low-end and midrange mobile devices because of their form factor, proven record, and lower cost. But multi-die assemblies provide more fle... » read more

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