Data Center Hyperscaling


As we move in to 2020 it’s clear that every sector of industry, including the semiconductor industry, will have a responsibility to address growing environmental concerns. We should be aware that as our sector underpins the growth in AI, 5G telecommunications, crypto-currency and high performance compute applications, it is predicted that by 2030 energy consumption attributable to data center... » read more

Accelerated Life Testing For Failure Prediction


By Theresa Duncan and Chris South Product reliability is essential for success, especially for electronic products like printed circuit boards (PCB). Accelerated life testing (ALT) is an expedient and cost-effective solution to determine the reliability and robustness of an electronic product or component. ALT uncovers potential failure risks and quantifies the life characteristics of a p... » read more

Easier Bond Finger Solder Mask Openings


If you design wire bond packages, you’re familiar with the need for the bond fingers and rings on the package substrate layers to be exposed through the solder mask layer. If they aren’t, it becomes… rather difficult… to bond the wire to them, after all! We talked about general-purpose bounding shapes a few weeks ago in “A Boundless Bounty of Bounding Shapes”. Bond fingers have a... » read more

What Is DRAM’s Future?


Memory — and DRAM in particular — has moved into the spotlight as it finds itself in the critical path to greater system performance. This isn't the first time DRAM has been the center of attention involving performance. The problem is that not everything progresses at the same rate, creating serial bottlenecks in everything from processor performance to transistor design, and even the t... » read more

Power-Hungry Safety And Security


There is a price to pay for everything. When it comes to adding safety and security into a device, the costs in terms of power and area can be significant, but if the task is taken seriously, those costs can be managed and minimized. New analysis and implementation tools are coming to market that can also help to keep the costs contained. But it also requires the right mindset. As more indus... » read more

Simulation: Balancing Speed And Debug


There’s an old saying about simulation: “It’s all about the need for speed.” Simulation is the core technology for functional verification of semiconductors, and the demand for higher runtime performance never ebbs. Larger chips require more complex testbenches and much larger test suites since verification grows exponentially with increase in design size. With the diminishing return an... » read more

A New Era In Flexible, Affordable Design


Socionext has always prided itself on flexibility. The company was formed in 2015 as part of the merger of the LSI businesses of Fujitsu and Panasonic. So not only did the company successfully merge engineering teams, it’s grown and expanded its offerings of advanced systems-on-chips (SoCs) over the years. As such, Socionext’s philosophy is rooted in doing more than just listening carefu... » read more

Stream Vs. Pool Data Processing


Geoff Tate, CEO of Flex Logix, looks at the very different data processing requirements at the edge and in the data center, and what really drives efficiency and speed in applications such as automotive. » read more

Terminal Boundary Dictates Power-Aware Macros


This paper identifies and resolves the fundamental problems of integrating, hardening and verifying soft and hard macros in larger systems with a power aware DVIF perspective. To read more, click here. » read more

Startup Funding: March 2020


Dedicated AI hardware, quantum computing, and avionics startups shined in March. Here's a look at seventeen startups, which raised a collective $525M. The avionics sector soared thanks to Lilium and its electric vertical takeoff jet. Quantum computing was another hot area, with three companies bringing in ~$88M together. Plus, chip design management, two companies developing AR glasses, and how... » read more

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