Heterogeneous Ultra-Low-Power RISC-V SoC Running Linux


A technical paper titled "HULK-V: a Heterogeneous Ultra-low-power Linux capable RISC-V SoC" was published by researchers at University of Bologna, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, and ETH Zurich. "We present HULK-V: an open-source Heterogeneous Linux-capable RISC-V-based SoC coupling a 64-bit RISC-V processor with an 8-core Programmable Multi-Core Accelerator (PMCA), delivering up to... » read more

Leveraging Multi-Agent RL for Microprocessor Design Space (Harvard, Google)


A new technical paper titled "Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learning for Microprocessor Design Space Exploration" was published by researchers at Harvard University and Google research groups. Abstract "Microprocessor architects are increasingly resorting to domain-specific customization in the quest for high-performance and energy-efficiency. As the systems grow in complexity, fine-tuning arch... » read more

Increased Photomask Density And Its Impact On EDA


The ability to print curvilinear shapes on photomasks can have big repercussions on semiconductor design. Aki Fujimura, CEO of D2S, explains why mask rule checking has been bound by complex design rules, and why curvilinear shapes are important for reducing margin and simplifying the chip design process. » read more

Research Bits: Dec. 13


Electronic-photonic interface for data centers Engineers at Caltech and the University of Southampton integrated an electronic and photonic chip for high-speed communication in data centers. "There are more than 2,700 data centers in the U.S. and more than 8,000 worldwide, with towers of servers stacked on top of each other to manage the load of thousands of terabytes of data going in and o... » read more

Chip Industry’s Technical Paper Roundup: Dec. 13


New technical papers added to Semiconductor Engineering’s library this week.[table id=70 /] If you have research papers you are trying to promote, we will review them to see if they are a good fit for our global audience. At a minimum, papers need to be well researched and documented, relevant to the semiconductor ecosystem, and free of marketing bias. There is no cost involved for us po... » read more

Neural Architecture & Hardware Accelerator Co-Design Framework (Princeton/ Stanford)


A new technical paper titled "CODEBench: A Neural Architecture and Hardware Accelerator Co-Design Framework" was published by researchers at Princeton University and Stanford University. "Recently, automated co-design of machine learning (ML) models and accelerator architectures has attracted significant attention from both the industry and academia. However, most co-design frameworks either... » read more

New Method to Measure, At The Wafer Scale, Direct Bonding Energies (CEA-LETI)


A new technical paper titled "Double cantilever beam bonding energy measurement using confocal IR microscopy" was published by researchers at Univ. Grenoble Alpes, CEA-LETI and SOITEC, Parc Technologique des Fontaines. "A new technique is assessed in order to measure, at the wafer scale, direct bonding energies. It is derived from the standard Double Cantilever Beam (DCB) method and uses int... » read more

Silent Data Corruption


Defects can creep into chip manufacturing from anywhere, but the problem is getting worse at advanced nodes and in advanced packages where reduced pin access can make testing much more difficult. Ira Leventhal, vice president of U.S. Applied Research and Technology at Advantest America, talks about what’s causing these so-called silent data errors, how to find them, and why it now requires ma... » read more

Variability Becoming More Problematic, More Diverse


Process variability is becoming more problematic as transistor density increases, both in planar chips and in heterogeneous advanced packages. On the basis of sheer numbers, there are many more things that can wrong. “If you have a chip with 50 billion transistors, then there are 50 places where a one-in-a-billion event can happen,” said Rob Aitken, a Synopsys fellow. And if Intel’s... » read more

Week In Review: Manufacturing, Test


The more than 1,400 attendees at this week’s IEDM, which celebrated the 75th anniversary of the transistor, were clearly focused on making the next 75 years of semiconductors even more remarkable than the last. Intel, Samsung, TSMC, STMicroelectronics, GlobalFoundries and imec announced breakthrough devices, materials, and even integration approaches. These included: Intel showcased adva... » read more

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