Week In Review: Manufacturing, Test

By Mark LaPedus - 01 May, 2020 - Comments: 0

Fab tools The U.S. Department of Commerce has announced new export control actions to prevent China, Russia, and Venezuela from obtaining U.S. technology for military purposes. This expands the “Military End Use/User Controls (MEU)” license requirement controls on China, Russia, and Venezuela, covering military end-users, as well as semiconductor equipment, sensors and other technologies. ... » read more

Week In Review: Auto, Security, Pervasive Computing

By SE Staff - 01 May, 2020 - Comments: 0

Data center, 5G security Nvidia won approval for its Mellanox Technologies Ltd. deal from China, according to an article on Bloomberg. Mellanox chips split up and manage AI datasets for parallel processing, which can be used in data centers for computing. Rambus has released security for 800 Gigbit Ethernet MAC (media access control) for enhanced data center and 5G infrastructure. It secure... » read more

Week In Review: Design, Low Power

By Jesse Allen - 01 May, 2020 - Comments: 0

Nvidia completed its $7 billion acquisition of Mellanox. The acquisition, initially announced over a year ago, brings Mellanox’s high-performance networking and interconnect technology to Nvidia's server efforts and gives the company full end-to-end offerings in the data center space. To date, this is the largest acquisition in Nvidia's history. Tools & IP Synopsys debuted its 3DIC Co... » read more

The Murky World Of AI Benchmarks

By Ann Mutschler - 30 Apr, 2020 - Comments: 0

AI startup companies have been emerging at breakneck speed for the past few years, all the while touting TOPS benchmark data. But what does it really mean and does a TOPS number apply across every application? Answer: It depends on a variety of factors. Historically, every class of design has used some kind of standard benchmark for both product development and positioning. For example, SPEC... » read more

Inevitable Bugs

By Brian Bailey - 29 Apr, 2020 - Comments: 3

Are bug escapes inevitable? That was the fundamental question that Oski Technology recently put to a group of industry experts. The participants are primarily simulation experts who, in many cases, help direct the verification directions for some of the largest systems companies. In order to promote free discussion, all comments have been anonymized, distilling the primary thoughts of the parti... » read more

Blog Review: April 29

By Jesse Allen - 29 Apr, 2020 - Comments: 0

Arm's Paul Whatmough checks out SCALE-Sim, an open source cycle-accurate simulator specifically for neural processing unit (NPU) architectures. Mentor's Neil Johnson shows how a complete verification methodology requires complementary deployment of multiple techniques, with different options at each level of abstraction. Cadence's Paul McLellan checks out challenges in automotive reliabil... » read more

Manufacturing Bits: April 28

By Mark LaPedus - 28 Apr, 2020 - Comments: 1

Gate-all-around reliability The 2020 IEEE International Reliability Physics Symposium (IRPS) will kick off this week, this time as a virtual event. IRPS is a conference that focuses on the latest research in microelectronics reliability. The event starts off with keynotes from Infineon, Intel and Texas Instruments. IRPS also involves a multitude of papers and presentations. On the logi... » read more

Power/Performance Bits: April 28

By Jesse Allen - 28 Apr, 2020 - Comments: 0

Flat microwave reflector Researchers from Los Alamos National Laboratory developed a new flat reflector for microwaves that could improve communications while providing a better form factor. It also breaks reciprocity, effectively turning it into a one-way mirror. The flat reflector can be reconfigured on the fly electronically, allowing it to be used for beam steering, customized focusing,... » read more

The Meaning Of Verification

By Brian Bailey - 27 Apr, 2020 - Comments: 1

When I ask the question "Why do we do verification?" there are generally two types of responses. One of them sees the glass as half empty and the other as half full. It depends upon how you look at the problem and if you see verification as being a positive or negative operation. The negative answer is that we do verification to find bugs. This relies on the mechanical function of creating v... » read more

Full-Duplex Wireless Remains A Promise And A Challenge

By Bryon Moyer - 27 Apr, 2020 - Comments: 0

Wireless bandwidth capacity could double if we could use full-duplex communication. Unfortunately, that’s not as easy as it sounds. People are working hard on it, but we’re mostly not there yet. Full duplex seems easy. In fact, so easy that it was possible with the first basic telephones. There was one loop between each phone and the central office, and that one loop carried conversation... » read more

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