Novel NorthPole Architecture Enables Low-Latency, High-Energy-Efficiency LLM inference (IBM Research)


A new technical paper titled "Breakthrough low-latency, high-energy-efficiency LLM inference performance using NorthPole" was published by researchers at IBM Research. At the IEEE High Performance Extreme Computing (HPEC) Virtual Conference in September 2024, new performance results for their AIU NorthPole AI inference accelerator chip were presented on a 3-billion-parameter Granite LLM. ... » read more

Chip Industry Week In Review


Global spending on 300mm fab equipment is expected to reach a record US$400 billion from 2025 to 2027, according to SEMI. Key drivers are the regionalization of semiconductor fabs and the increasing demand for AI chips in data centers and edge devices, with China, South Korea, and Taiwan leading the way. The Biden-Harris Administration launched the National Semiconductor Technology Center’... » read more

Hardware Acceleration Approach for KAN Via Algorithm-Hardware Co-Design


A new technical paper titled "Hardware Acceleration of Kolmogorov-Arnold Network (KAN) for Lightweight Edge Inference" was published by researchers at Georgia Tech, TSMC and National Tsing Hua University. Abstract "Recently, a novel model named Kolmogorov-Arnold Networks (KAN) has been proposed with the potential to achieve the functionality of traditional deep neural networks (DNNs) using ... » read more

Flexible IGZO RISC-V Microprocessor


A new technical paper titled "Bendable non-silicon RISC-V microprocessor" was published by researchers at Pragmatic Semiconductor, Qamcom,  and Harvard University. From the abstract: "Here we present Flex-RV, a 32-bit microprocessor based on an open RISC-V instruction set fabricated with indium gallium zinc oxide thin-film transistors on a flexible polyimide substrate, enabling an ultralow... » read more

Dualtronics: Photonic Devices on the Cation Face and Electronic Devices on the Anion Face of the Same Wafer


A new technical paper titled "Using both faces of polar semiconductor wafers for functional devices" was published by researchers at Cornell University and Polish Academy of Sciences. Find the technical paper here. Published September 2024. Cornell University's news release is here, stating "Cornell researchers, in collaboration with a team at the Polish Academy of Sciences, have develope... » read more

Accelerating Reset Domain Crossing Verification With Data Analytics Techniques


By Reetika and Sulabh Kumar Khare As the complexity of integrated circuit (IC) designs continues to rise, the task of verifying these designs has become increasingly challenging. The pace of this growth is staggering, with design complexity doubling roughly every 20 months. This exponential increase places immense pressure on verification processes, which must keep up to ensure that these so... » read more

PAM4: Pulse Amplitude Modulation Explained


Pulse amplitude modulation (PAM) is already a widely adopted technology in high-speed digital communications. But to understand why it has become ubiquitous in serial data standards, you first must understand the market forces driving the data networking industry. In this article, I will explore PAM4 in-depth, from its benefits and potential tradeoffs to why it was an essential innovation that ... » read more

Enabling Innovative Multi-Vendor Chiplet-Based Designs


Chiplets have emerged as a critical implementation paradigm for semiconductor products, primarily because they can deliver cost benefits relative to a non-chiplet-based approach. The first, most well-proven, and obvious benefit of a chiplet-based approach is manufacturing cost. Manufacturing cost benefits are accrued either from the appropriate selection of chiplet die size, or by optimizin... » read more

Using AI To Glue Disparate IC Ecosystem Data


AI holds the potential to change how companies interact throughout the global semiconductor ecosystem, gluing together different data types and processes that can be shared between companies that in the past had little or no direct connections. Chipmakers always have used abstraction layers to see the bigger picture of how the various components of a chip go together, allowing them to pinpoi... » read more

Managing Performance in Modern SoC Designs


As industries like automotive, consumer electronics, telecommunications and artificial intelligence (AI) push for greater processing power, efficiency and scalability, system-on-chip (SoC) designs have rapidly evolved to meet these demands. With the growing complexity of modern SoCs, designers face the challenge of managing an increasing number of interconnected IP blocks while ensuring seamles... » read more

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