The IoT Of COVID-19


Data from the Internet of Things (IoT) and mobile devices is providing a surprising view on the COVID-19 pandemic. Like an invisible hurricane churning over us, the pandemic’s effects are huge, but the tiny virus that causes it is very difficult to see directly. Data can save lives. Early detection, isolating those who are positive, contact tracing and isolating those who had contact are k... » read more

Four Steps To ISO 26262 Safety Mechanism Insertion And Validation


By Ping Yeung, Jin Hou, Vinayak Desai, and Jacob Wiltgen The complexity of automotive integrated circuits (ICs) has grown exponentially with the introduction of advanced driver-assistance systems and autonomous-drive technologies. Directly correlated to this hike in complexity is the increased burden of ensuring an IC is protected from random hardware faults—functional failures that occur ... » read more

PUF, The Magic IoT Defender


How would you feel if you put hours of effort and your ingenuity into designing a product, only to find cheaper copycats on the market? And what if, over time, those copycats failed and somehow eroded your company’s brand reputation? It happens more often than it should, especially as hackers up their game in sophistication and consumers get attracted to lower cost options. So that’s why... » read more

AI, Performance, Power, Safety Shine Spotlight On Last-Level Cache


Memory limitations to performance, always important in modern systems, have become an especially significant concern in automotive safety-critical applications making use of AI methods. On one hand, detecting and reporting a potential collision or other safety problem has to be very fast. Any corrective action is constrained by physics and has to be taken well in advance to avoid the problem. ... » read more

AI Inference: Pools Vs. Streams


Deep Learning and AI Inference originated in the data center and was first deployed in practical, volume applications in the data center. Only recently has Inference begun to spread to Edge applications (anywhere outside of the data center). In the data center much of the data to be processed is a “pool” of data. For example, when you see your photo album tagged with all of the pictures ... » read more

Don’t Get Stranded On Islands, Delete Them


No, this isn’t a Hollywood movie. We’re talking about pieces of plane shapes with no connections to them, not an idyllic private oasis in the Caribbean (sorry). Removing shape islands is something you’ve always been able to do in the Allegro layout environments, but the flow for achieving this has improved significantly in recent years. Come with us, and we’ll compare what the flow u... » read more

Security Verification For Processor-Based SoCs


By Ruud Derwig and Nicole Fern Security in modern systems is of utmost importance. Device manufacturers are including multiple security features and attack protections into both the hardware and software design. End-product system security, however, cannot be guaranteed by using a secure processor alone. The final product security results not only from using proven, secure hardware component... » read more

Multitasking For Modern GPUs


Originally GPUs were all about one thing, 3D graphics, and specifically fill-rate. Creating 3D triangles, calculating their position, coloring them in, processing the right ones (thank you tile-based deferred rending), and outputting them to the screen. Nowadays GPUs need to do more – it’s called “compute.” Indeed, we’ve been talking about running this on low-power GPUs for a long ... » read more

A Tipping Point For Women In Semiconductors


Yesterday was International Women’s Day, which for some people was a day of protest and action to raise awareness of issues that women face around the world. The day was more than just a feel-good Google doodle that blipped across our screens on Sunday: women were out in the streets getting arrested, tear gassed, and sprayed with water hoses. In some countries, the risk of openly walking with... » read more

Implementing Strong Security For AI/ML Accelerators


A number of critical security vulnerabilities affecting high-performance CPUs identified in recent years have rocked the semiconductor industry. These high-profile vulnerabilities inadvertently allowed malicious programs to access sensitive data such as passwords, secret keys and other secure assets. The real-world risks of silicon complexity The above-mentioned vulnerabilities are primaril... » read more

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