Challenges At 3/2nm

By Ed Sperling - 15 Sep, 2020 - Comments: 0

David Fried, vice president of computational products at Lam Research, talks about issues at upcoming process nodes, the move to EUV lithography and nanosheet transistors, and how process variation can affect yield and device performance. » read more

Manufacturing Bits: Sept. 15

By Mark LaPedus - 15 Sep, 2020 - Comments: 0

World’s largest camera The Department of Energy’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory has taken a step towards the development of the world’s largest digital camera. Target for astronomy applications, SLAC has developed a large 3,200-megapixel sensor array and has taken its first photos with the system. The sensor array will be integrated into the world’s largest digital camera, wh... » read more

Power/Performance Bits: Sept. 15

By Jesse Allen - 15 Sep, 2020 - Comments: 0

Higher-res lidar Researchers from Purdue University and École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) devised a way to improve lidar and provide higher-resolution detection of nearby fast-moving objects through mechanical control and modulation of light on a silicon chip. "Frequency modulated continuous wave" (FMCW) lidar detects objects by scanning laser light from the top of a vehicl... » read more

AI Inference Acceleration

By Ed Sperling - 14 Sep, 2020 - Comments: 0

Geoff Tate, CEO of Flex Logix, talks about considerations in choosing an AI inference accelerator, how that fits in with other processing elements on a chip, what tradeoffs are involved with reducing latency, and what considerations are the most important. » read more

Moov: Used Equipment Digital Marketplace

By Ed Sperling - 14 Sep, 2020 - Comments: 1

Most startups in the tech world are done by engineers or scientists. The idea behind Moov, a platform for buying and selling used equipment, is the brainchild of investment bankers. In effect, Moov has built a futures platform for semiconductor manufacturing equipment, with prices updated every few minutes from all over the world. "The basic idea is that every few years, companies upgrade... » read more

The Battery Problem

By Ed Sperling - 14 Sep, 2020 - Comments: 2

The fires sweeping the West Coast of the United States point to the need for a whole different way of managing power on both a macro and a micro level. Since the millennium, the power demand from data centers and from mobile devices has been climbing steadily. There are roughly 7.8 billion people on the planet, up from 6.115 billion people in 2000, according to the World Bank. Many of them o... » read more

Integrity Problems For Edge Devices

By Brian Bailey - 14 Sep, 2020 - Comments: 0

Battery-powered edge devices need to save every picojoule of energy they can, which often means running at very low voltages. This can create signal and power integrity issues normally seen at the very latest technology nodes. But because these tend to be lower-volume, lower-cost devices, developers often cannot afford to perform the same level of analysis on these devices. Noise can come in... » read more

Choosing The Right Hardware Root Of Trust

By Paul Karazuba - 14 Sep, 2020 - Comments: 0

A Root of Trust is broadly defined as the security foundation for a semiconductor or electronic system. Any secure function performed by the device or system relies in whole or in part on that Root of Trust. The Root of Trust typically handles chip and device identities, cryptographic functions, stores and manages cryptographic keys, and handles one or more secure processes that provides the fo... » read more

Nvidia To Buy Arm For $40B

By Ed Sperling - 13 Sep, 2020 - Comments: 2

Nvidia inked a deal with Softbank to buy Arm for $40 billion, combining the No. 1 AI/ML GPU maker with the No. 1 processor IP company. Assuming the deal wins regulatory approval, the combination of these two companies will create a powerhouse in the AI/ML world. Nvidia's GPUs are the go-to platform for training algorithms, while Arm has a broad portfolio of AI/ML processor cores. Arm also ha... » read more

Week In Review: Manufacturing, Test

By Mark LaPedus - 11 Sep, 2020 - Comments: 0

Top story NVIDIA and SoftBank Group Corp. (SBG) have announced a definitive agreement under which NVIDIA will acquire Arm from SBG and the SoftBank Vision Fund in a transaction valued at $40 billion. Market research Here’s the latest fab equipment forecast from VLSI Research: “The semiconductor equipment market has been very resilient in 2020 despite a very challenging macroeconomic ... » read more

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