Latency Considerations Of IDE Deployment On CXL Interconnects


Certain applications and hardware types – emerging memory, artificial intelligence/machine learning (AI/ML), and cloud servers, to name a few – can realize significant performance advantages when a low latency interface is employed. However, traditional interconnects like PCI Express (PCIe) often do not offer low enough latencies required to optimize these applications. In response, the Com... » read more

Multi-DRAM Memory Subsystems In SoCs


Even with DRAM capacity going up with each generation of DRAM, the demand for memory densities by a variety of applications is growing at an even faster rate. To support these high memory densities and bus width requirements (that are typically more than what a single DRAM can support), almost all the new generation of memory subsystems and SoCs have multiple DRAM dies combined to effectively c... » read more

Bringing Scalable Power Integrity Analysis To Analog IC Designs


Power integrity is a broad term in integrated circuit (IC) design and verification. However, when IC engineers are working through design signoff, power integrity analysis focuses on three specific aspects of a design: Power: Verify the chip design as implemented provides the total predicted power under different operating modes. Performance: Find and eliminate performance issues affect... » read more

Hyper-Convergence Is The New Normal For Digital Implementation


The era of smart-everything has led to a surge in the need for semiconductor devices across a myriad of traditional and novel applications. These applications demand high performance yet energy-efficient compute over blazing-fast networks to service trillions of edge devices that are constantly consuming and generating large amounts of data. This surge has invigorated system architects to innov... » read more

Short-Circuit Ruggedness In SiC MOSFETs


Trench-based silicon carbide power MOSFETs (Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor Field-Effect Transistors) represent a dramatic improvement in the Figure of Merit (FOM) values of power conversion switching devices. As a result, outstanding system performance is achieved, enabling higher efficiency, power density, and reduced system cost for many applications. Today, for major target applications for S... » read more

The Importance Of Aging Simulation In IC Design


Electronics reliability has been an important quality criterion in the automotive sector and in industrial automation for years. Electronics in this sector have to achieve product lifetimes of 10+ years under partially harsh environmental conditions. But the reliability of electronics is also becoming more important in other fields. For example, end customers now keep consumer products longer, ... » read more

Reliable And Efficient Compact Models For Scalable MTJ Simulation


By Fernando García Redondo, Pranay Prabhat, and Mudit Bhargava Since its discovery in 1975, Tunnel-Magneto-Resistance (TMR) has been actively investigated. From the 2000s, advances in process technologies have made the miniaturization of Magnetic Random Access Memories (MRAMs) based on TMR devices possible, together with integration into traditional CMOS processes. Introducing magneti... » read more

Integrated Ethernet PCS And PHY IP For 400G/800G Hyperscale Data Centers


Ethernet has become the primary network protocol of choice for the required server-to-server communication in hyperscale data centers, as it allows hyperscalers to disaggregate network switches and install their software operating systems independently. Ethernet enables cost-effective, dense, open switches and networking technologies which reduce cost/power per bit with transistor scaling. Ethe... » read more

The Shortest Path Deception


When manufacturing, assembling, and using integrated circuit (IC) chips, the electrostatic discharge (ESD) caused by accumulated static can damage the IC circuitry if the circuit is not properly protected [1]. To prevent such damage, ESD protection devices are designed into the circuitry such that they will create a low impedance path that limits the peak voltage and current by diverting excess... » read more

The Next Generation Of General-Purpose Compute At Hot Chips


At the recent HOT CHIPS, the first day opened with the chips that you first think of when you hear the word processor. These are the next generation of chips from the likes of Intel, AMD, and IBM. There were lots of other chips too, such as Arm's Neoverse N2, and NVIDIA's new data-processing unit (DPU), or AMD's next-generation graphics architecture. But for this post, anyway, I'm going to focu... » read more

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