Week In Review: Manufacturing, Test


Government policy For the last four years, the U.S. and China have been embroiled in a trade war, especially on the technology front. The U.S. has implemented a number of export control measures and tariffs in the arena. But there might be a thawing in the tense relationship between the two superpowers. “Reports surfaced Thursday indicating the China Semiconductor Industry Association (CSIA)... » read more

Week In Review: Design, Low Power


Tools & IP Codasip unveiled three commercially licensed add-ons to the Western Digital SweRV Core EH1, aiming to allow it to be designed into a wider range of applications. The SweRV Core EH1 is a 32-bit, dual-issue, RISC-V ISA core with a 9-stage pipeline, open-sourced through CHIPS Alliance. The add-ons offer a floating-point unit (FPU) that supports the RISC-V single precision [F] and d... » read more

Week In Review: Auto, Security, Pervasive Computing


Automotive/Mobility General Motors is working on a next version of Ultium battery chemistry and announced a joint development agreement with Singapore-based SolidEnergy Systems, a lithium metal battery startup founded by a graduate of MIT. The companies plan to open a Woburn, Massachusetts prototype production line by 2023. GM’s is attempting to lower the cost of its proprietary battery tech... » read more

Ten Reasons 3D-IC Will Profoundly Change The Way You Design Electronics


The history of electronic design has been defined by repeated waves of major technological change and accompanying business realignment. Many companies have foundered and disappeared when they were unable to anticipate and adjust to these powerful forces of change. Consequently, I am not alone in believing that now is the time to get ready for the next significant change to your electronic desi... » read more

The EV Era Has Begun: Here Are Five Things We Need For It To Succeed


The EV era has officially begun. General Motors says it will eliminate gas and diesel cars and SUVs from its lineup by 2035 while Ford will go all electric in Europe by 2030. The UK issued plans for phasing out diesel and gas cars by 2035 and then moved it forward to 2030. Fleet customers such as UPS and Amazon are ordering zero emissions delivery vehicles by the thousands and investing in s... » read more

Controlling The Reliability Of Silicon Carbide-Based Devices


The development of wide bandgap silicon carbide (SiC) compound semiconductors has proved to be extremely beneficial for power conversion applications. Capable of switching at significantly higher frequencies, and with higher breakdown voltage characteristics, SiC power transistors are quickly becoming an attractive silicon alternative for high power density and/or high-efficiency power conver... » read more

Domain-Specific Memory


Domain-specific computing may be all the rage, but it is avoiding the real problem. The bigger concern is the memories that throttle processor performance, consume more power, and take up the most chip area. Memories need to break free from the rigid structures preferred by existing software. When algorithms and memory are designed together, improvements in performance are significant and pr... » read more

An Integrated Approach To Power Domain And CDC Verification


Reducing power consumption is essential for both mobile and data center applications. Yet it is a challenge to lower power while minimally impacting performance. The solution has been to partition designs into multiple power domains which allow selectively reducing voltage levels or powering off partitions. Traditional low power verification validates only the functional correctness of power... » read more

Tradeoffs To Improve Performance, Lower Power


Generic chips are no longer acceptable in competitive markets, and the trend is growing as designs become increasingly heterogeneous and targeted to specific workloads and applications. From the edge to the cloud, including everything from vehicles, smartphones, to commercial and industrial machinery, the trend increasingly is on maximizing performance using the least amount of energy. This ... » read more

Addressing IC Hyperconvergence Design Challenges


Recently in an article titled “A Renaissance for Semiconductors,” my colleague Michael Sanie highlighted some of the trends that are driving next-generation product development. He detailed how designs targeting new applications are innovating through a combination of advanced process node technologies and heterogeneous integration of stacked die/3D/2.5D systems. Additionally, advanced vert... » read more

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