category: Editor’s Note

category: IoT, Security & Automotive

Faster Assembly Required
By Ed Sperling - 27 Jun, 2013 - Comments: 0

Speeding up production has been a mantra dating back throughout recorded history, and presumably well before that. That’s what technology was created for—roads, bridges aqueducts, computers, the Internet, and everything that connects the real to the virtual world. A speech by Nvidia chief scientist Bill Dally at DAC that complex SoCs should only take a couple weeks to design by two guys ... » read more

Divide, Abstract And Conquer
By Ed Sperling - 03 May, 2013 - Comments: 0

For years, the motto among design and verification engineers has been to look at the individual pieces of a design because it’s impossible to have a single tool or even an integrated collection of tools that can debug everything. That approach isn’t changing, but the method for getting there is. The driver behind this shift is a familiar one—growing complexity. Even platforms and subsy... » read more

The Next Big Thing
By Ed Sperling - 25 Apr, 2013 - Comments: 0

The “next big thing” is always a collection of things—technologies that come together at the right moment to produce a wildly popular new product at a time when the market can consume it, build on it and truly recognize and leverage its value. What’s different about the Internet of Things is that, despite efforts to take control of it, there is no single owner, no company or even gr... » read more

Market Realities
By Ed Sperling - 28 Mar, 2013 - Comments: 0

The speculation about EDA’s future—will it consolidate, will it be incorporated into large IDMs or foundries—has surfaced again. The reason this time is that EDA is in a retrenchment period as the semiconductor industry grapples with increasing complexity, multiple options ranging from multi-patterning to stacked die to more third-party IP, and the rising cost of complex SoCs at the mo... » read more

Modeling Errors
By Ed Sperling - 28 Feb, 2013 - Comments: 0

Raising the abstraction level in increasingly large and complex design requires proxies. In IC world, we think of them in terms of higher abstractions, but the basic premise is that you can’t focus on ever detail without losing sight of the bigger picture, so we build models that can represent those details. Done well, these models are incredibly useful. They save time, make it easier to ... » read more

Inflection Points And Changes Ahead
By Ed Sperling - 23 Feb, 2013 - Comments: 0

It’s hard to justify throwing away a well-oiled machine and replacing it with a new one. It works, it’s predictable and it’s low risk. And nowhere is this more evident than in the semiconductor industry. The doubling of transistors every two years for nearly five decades has created a $300 billion chip industry, reduced the price of processing by orders of magnitude, and made possible ele... » read more

3 Ways To Differentiate
By Ed Sperling - 13 Jan, 2013 - Comments: 0

Time-to-market pressures and complexity have put the squeeze on design teams. They have to bring incredibly complex SoCs to market on time, make sure they’re functionally correct and work within a tight power budget, and they have to come in on or under budget. Amazingly, they’re still able to accomplish this, thanks to some heroic efforts on the part of engineers and some incredible adv... » read more

Predictions, Problems And Prognosis
By Ed Sperling - 19 Dec, 2012 - Comments: 0

Never before in the long and often turbulent history of the semiconductor industry have so many problems presented themselves at each new process node. And never before have there been so many well-tested choices to resolving them. After possibly the most intensive, extensive and expensive research this industry has ever witnessed, Moore’s Law is now technologically assured down to at leas... » read more

Parallel Universes
By Ed Sperling - 29 Nov, 2012 - Comments: 0

There are no rules for knowing when to step out of the box. Good timing is everything, and that may have been one of the greatest talents of the late Steve Jobs. Knowing when, in Apple’s terminology, to “Think Different,” is every bit as important as the act of thinking differently—particularly when you realize that most of Apple’s big wins since the iPod stormed onto the consumer ele... » read more

Moore’s Law Revisited
By Ed Sperling - 25 Oct, 2012 - Comments: 0

It’s no surprise that Moore’s Law can continue for many more generations. Intel’s road map already extends down to 5nm, most likely with carbon nanotube FETs, tunnel FETs, graphene TSVs and maybe even fully depleted SOI to replace bulk CMOS. The rest of the industry has been hanging back a node or two, gliding on the coattails of what Intel and companies like IBM, Samsung and STMicroel... » read more

← Older posts Newer posts →

  • Sponsors

About

Navigation

Connect With Us

Copyright ©2013-2025 SMG   |  Terms of Service  |  Privacy Policy