What’s Missing In Deep Learning?


It is impossible today to be unaware of deep learning/machine learning/neural networks -- even if what it all entails is not even clear yet. Someone who is intimately familiar with this area, and has some thoughts on this is Chris Rowen, founder of Tensilica (now part of Cadence), who is now a self-described hat juggler. He is still active Cadence several days a month, working technically on... » read more

When DDR DRAM Is Right For Automotive Systems


Most of the processors contained within automobiles are relatively small and with modest memory requirements that can be served by SRAM and non-volatile memory. The type of computing, image processing, and graphics displays that are possible with a more powerful CPU connected to DRAM have largely been restricted to the non-safety-critical infotainment system in the vehicle – until now. Advanc... » read more

The Challenges Of Designing 28G And 56G SerDes IP


The industry move to 56 Gbps PAM4 is undoubtedly one of the greatest challenges currently facing SerDes IP designers and their customers. To begin with, shifting to 56 Gbps PAM4 immediately causes a loss of 9 dB. While the baud rate is 28 Gbaud, there are now three eyes stacked on top of each other. Nevertheless, there is still demand for 35+ dB reach. This is a significant challenge which requ... » read more

7nm Design Success Necessitates A Multi-Physics Approach


Whether you are designing an energy efficient mobile device, or an ADAS platform with stringent reliability requirements, or a high performance enterprise networking system, chips fabricated on advanced technologies such as 7-nanometer (nm) process and 2.5/3D or wafer level packaging can provide several advantages. Designs using these technologies consume less power while delivering higher thro... » read more

Finding Evasive System-Level Bugs Using Memory Consistency Algorithm


Over Easter weekend in 2015 there was a jewelry heist at the safe deposit building at Hatton Gardens in London. The safe deposit vault was in the basement of a building and is used by jewelers in the area for storing large amounts of diamonds, jewelry, precious metals, and cash. The thieves made off with over $300 million in loot, making it the biggest heist in British history. For a while it l... » read more

Multiple Dimensions Of Low-Power Verification With Portable Stimulus


There is little doubt that designing for low power is one of the biggest challenges for today’s system-on-chip (SoC) devices. The need to minimize power consumption is clear for the vast array of portable electronic devices that we use every day. Consumers expect most of their gadgets to last multiple days before they require recharging, and low-power design is the key to extending battery li... » read more

IoT Will Grow Faster With More Flexible Wireless Design


The fascinating numbers-within-the-numbers for the forecasted growth in Internet of Things (IoT) devices is this: By 2020, it’s estimated there will be nearly 2 billion low-power radio-connected devices, specifically with Bluetooth 5 and 802.15.4 (Zigbee and Thread). Those numbers are compelling because not only is that a quadrupling of the amount of low-power radio devices today, but the val... » read more

Green Computing: GPUs Strike Back


After the last Platform for Advanced Scientific Computing Conference in June, I wrote an article here about how the custom designed chips from NRCPC (used in the Sunway TaihuLight) and PEZY Computing (used in the PEZY Shoubu) had jumped to the top of the Green500 list with the Sunway TaihuLight also remarkably topping the Top500 list. Well, six months after the report from the IEEE/ACM SC16 Con... » read more

Dynamic Peak Power As A Proxy For DVD? Really?


Dynamic-voltage-drop (DVD) concerns have grown substantially at the 10nm and 7nm silicon process nodes. DVD refers to the transient voltage drop that a local power grid on a chip might experience if there is a rapid change in current. That drop can act like a “stall,” hurting performance until the grid recovers. Beefing up the power grid metal might seem to be the obvious fix, but, at th... » read more

Five Pitfalls In PCIe-Based NVMe Controller Verification


Non-Volatile Memory Express (NVMe) is gaining rapidly in mindshare among consumers and vendors. Some industry analysts are forecasting that PCIe-based NVMe will become the dominant storage interface over the next few years. With its high-performance and low-latency characteristics, and its availability for virtually all platforms, NVMe is a game changer. For the first time, storage devices and ... » read more

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