Physics-Aware AI Is The Key To Next Gen IC Design


Chip design projects are notorious for generating huge amounts of design data. The design process calls for a dozen or more electronic design automation (EDA) software tools to be run in sequence. Together, they write out hundreds of gigabytes of intermediate data on the way to creating a final layout for manufacturing. Traditionally, this has been seen as a problem. But this richness of data i... » read more

Research Bits: May 28


Nanofluidic memristive neural networks Engineers from EPFL developed a functional nanofluidic memristive device that relies on ions, rather than electrons and holes, to compute and store data. “Memristors have already been used to build electronic neural networks, but our goal is to build a nanofluidic neural network that takes advantage of changes in ion concentrations, similar to living... » read more

Research Bits: May 21


Lithium tantalate PICs Researchers at EPFL and Shanghai Institute of Microsystem and Information Technology developed scalable photonic integrated circuits (PICs) based on lithium tantalate (LiTaO3). Lithium tantalate can provide excellent electro-optic qualities and is used in telecom 5G RF filters. The team developed a wafer-bonding method for lithium tantalate, which is compatible with s... » read more

High-Level Synthesis Propels Next-Gen AI Accelerators


Everything around you is getting smarter. Artificial intelligence is not just a data center application but will be deployed in all kinds of embedded systems that we interact with daily. We expect to talk to and gesture at them. We expect them to recognize and understand us. And we expect them to operate with just a little bit of common sense. This intelligence is making these systems not just ... » read more

Chip Aging Becoming Key Factor In Data Center Economics


Chip aging is becoming a much bigger concern inside of data centers, where it can impact server uptime, utilization rates, and the amount of energy needed to drive signals and cool entire server racks. Aging in chips is the result of both higher logic utilization and increasing transistor density. This is problematic for data centers, in general, but especially for AI chips where digital log... » read more

Efficient Electronics


Attention nowadays has turned to the energy consumption of systems that run on electricity. At the moment, the discussion is focused on electricity consumption in data centers: if this continues to rise at its current rate, it will account for a significant proportion of global electricity consumption in the future. Yet there are other, less visible electricity consumers whose power needs are a... » read more

How To Successfully Deploy GenAI On Edge Devices


Generative AI (GenAI) burst onto the scene and into the public’s imagination with the launch of ChatGPT in late 2022. Users were amazed at the natural language processing chatbot’s ability to turn a short text prompt into coherent humanlike text including essays, language translations, and code examples. Technology companies – impressed with ChatGPT’s abilities – have started looking ... » read more

Will Domain-Specific ICs Become Ubiquitous?


Questions are surfacing for all types of design, ranging from small microcontrollers to leading-edge chips, over whether domain-specific design will become ubiquitous, or whether it will fall into the historic pattern of customization first, followed by lower-cost, general-purpose components. Custom hardware always has been a double-edged sword. It can provide a competitive edge for chipmake... » read more

DDR5 PMICs Enable Smarter, Power-Efficient Memory Modules


Power management has received increasing focus in microelectronic systems as the need for greater power density, efficiency and precision have grown apace. One of the important ongoing trends in service of these needs has been the move to localizing power delivery. To optimize system power, it’s best to deliver as high a voltage as possible to the endpoint where the power is consumed. Then a... » read more

How Quickly Can You Take Your Idea To Chip Design?


Gone are the days of expensive tapeouts only done by commercial companies. Thanks to Tiny Tapeout, students, hobbyists, and more can design a simple ASIC or PCB design and actually send it to a foundry for a small fraction of the usual cost. Learners from all walks of life can use the resources to learn how to design a chip, without signing an NDA or installing licenses, faster than ever before... » read more

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