Manufacturing Bits: March 30


Open access quantum computing Sandia National Laboratories has begun offering an open access program for its quantum computing testbed. Sandia will enable researchers to explore a range of new technologies, such as chemistry, materials science and mathematics, using its so-called Quantum Scientific Computing Open User Testbed (QSCOUT). Quantum computers promise to solve problems that are to... » read more

Power/Performance Bits: March 30


Harvesting body heat Researchers at University of Colorado Boulder, Harbin Institute of Technology, Southeast University, and Huazhong University of Science and Technology designed a stretchy thermoelectric generator that can be worn against the skin to power small wearable electronics using body heat. The stretchy material polyimine is used as the base of the device. A series of thin therm... » read more

Computing Where Data Resides


Computational storage is starting to gain traction as system architects come to grips with the rising performance, energy and latency impacts of moving large amounts of data between processors and hierarchical memory and storage. According to IDC, the global datasphere will grow from 45 zettabytes in 2019 to 175 by 2025. But that data is essentially useless unless it is analyzed or some amou... » read more

Unlock Your Vision… And A Bit Of EDA History


Repetitive patterns and hardware designs have something in common: there may be more than meets the eye. Even simple designs can have corner cases that are hard to detect by code review alone, and the situation is even more complex if third-party or legacy IP is involved. What if the IP has a deliberately hidden function? This is where verification tools like OneSpin 360 come in, to remove huma... » read more

What Does RISC-V Stand For?


RISC-V (pronounced “risk-five”) stands for ‘reduced instruction set computer (RISC) five’. The number five refers to the number of generations of RISC architecture that were developed at the University of California, Berkeley since 1981. The RISC concept (like the parallel MIPS development in Stanford University) was motivated by the fact that most processor instructions were not... » read more

Week In Review: Manufacturing, Test


Chipmakers Intel has re-entered the foundry business after a failed attempt several years ago. In its new efforts, Intel is establishing a new standalone business unit called Intel Foundry Services. As part of those efforts, Intel has announced plans to build two new fabs in Arizona. This build-out represents an investment of approximately $20 billion. “INTC hosted a strategy update with ... » read more

Week In Review: Auto, Security, Pervasive Computing


Automotive A fire at a Renesas fab may put a further squeeze on the supply of automotive chips, according to an Associated Press story. The fire in Naka Factory (located in Japan in Hitachinaka, Ibaraki Prefecture) was caused by plating equipment igniting within the first floor of the N3 Building and was extinguished the same day it started on March 19th, according to a press release. “The c... » read more

Week In Review: Design, Low Power


Companies Pearl Semiconductor launched to provide low and ultra-low noise timing products. “Pearl is a timing company developing resonator-agnostic solutions. We work with quartz crystals, MEMS resonators or whatever achieves superior performance,” said Ayman Ahmed, CEO of Pearl Semiconductor. “Current and future automotive applications demand low noise and a wide operating temperatur... » read more

Stuck In A Rut


In the DVCon panel session about open-source verification, the first part of which has been published along with this blog, you will read about a fiery debate between the panelists. This is regarding the ability of the EDA industry to innovate. On one side is the accusation that there has been no real innovation since 1988. On the other side, there have been fantastic advances have been made th... » read more

Verification In The Open Source Era


Experts at the Table: Semiconductor Engineering sat down to discuss what open source verification means today and what it should evolve into, with Jean-Marie Brunet, senior director for the Emulation Division at Siemens EDA; Ashish Darbari, CEO of Axiomise; Simon Davidmann, CEO of Imperas Software; Serge Leef, program manager in the Microsystems Technology Office at DARPA; Tao Liu, staff hardwa... » read more

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