category: Top Stories

category: Auto, Security & Edge AI

What’s Next For Power Optimization
By Brian Bailey - 05 Dec, 2013 - Comments: 1

Today it is difficult to find a design that does not consider some kind of power optimization. Mobile needs it to preserve battery life, data centers need it to reduce operating cost, and many are finding they need it to meet tougher regulatory requirements. In a survey conducted two years ago, there was no segment of the industry that was not taking a serious look at reducing their power profi... » read more

New Challenges Emerge With FinFETs
By Ed Sperling - 05 Dec, 2013 - Comments: 0

Working at advanced process nodes is always tricky. There are new things to worry about and more rules to deal with initially, yet the promised benefit is improved performance, power and area, or cost. But at the next process node, and the one after that, there are so many variables coming into play that trying to make sense of the PPA equation is becoming much more difficult. Early reports ... » read more

Thermally Challenged
By Brian Bailey - 05 Dec, 2013 - Comments: 0

Chips run hot and the thermal densities increase with every reduction in fabrication geometry. “When we go down to 16nm the local power density increases by 25% and the local gate density also increases by 25% to 30%,” explains Norman Chang, vice president of product strategy at Ansys/Apache. In fact, this is becoming such a large problem that it is affecting the scaling process itsel... » read more

Seven Ways To Improve PPA Before Moving To FinFETs
By Ed Sperling - 05 Dec, 2013 - Comments: 0

Henry Ford wrote in his autobiography, “Any customer can have a car painted any color that he wants so long as it is black.” And for decades, the semiconductor industry has marched to a similar theme set by Moore’s Law. But with the transition to finFETs harder than it first appeared, questions are beginning to pop up that is fueling a new level of confusion. While the growing list of... » read more

Powerful Software Optimization
By Brian Bailey - 05 Dec, 2013 - Comments: 0

It is commonly accepted that the higher you go in the design chain, the bigger the impact that design and implementation decision can have. While power optimization may have started deep in the silicon, the success of a product, such a smart phone, often is based on the time between charges. Batteries provide a finite energy resource, and while low-level optimization may focus on power reductio... » read more

Sensory Overload
By Brian Bailey - 07 Nov, 2013 - Comments: 0

There are two new buzzwords—always on and context-aware—that have the potential to transform devices and the way in which we use them. Both are related to smartphones at the moment, but this just the initial place where their impact is being felt. Both concepts add the potential for smartphones to become part of the Internet of Things (IoT) because they enable meaningful interactions bet... » read more

Paving The Way To 16/14nm
By Ed Sperling - 07 Nov, 2013 - Comments: 0

The move to the next stop on the Moore’s Law road map isn’t getting any less expensive or easier, but it is becoming more predictable. Tools and programs are being expanded to address physical effects such as electrostatic discharge (ESD), electromigration and thermal effects from increased current density. Any or all of these three checklist items can affect the reliability of a chip. A... » read more

Atoms, ARMs, ARCs, Andes…And All The Rest
By Brian Bailey - 07 Nov, 2013 - Comments: 0

There was a time when nobody believed Intel processors would be replaced with any other device. Intel commanded the processor market. Rich Wawrzyniak, senior analyst for ASIC SoC at Semico Research, noted this was not always the case. In the early days of the PC there were many contenders and most people thought that Motorola would win because they had more money behind them. Ultimately, Intel ... » read more

The Problem With EDA Standards
By Brian Bailey - 07 Nov, 2013 - Comments: 0

In the EDA industry, does standard mean the same as it does in most industries? The Free Dictionary defines it as: Something, such as a practice or a product, that is widely recognized or employed, especially because of its excellence. In the EDA industry, a standards body is the place where EDA companies and customers come together to try and bring about convergence, often in a new or emerging... » read more

Huge Challenges With Billions Of Things
By Ed Sperling - 07 Nov, 2013 - Comments: 0

Communication is poised in the next couple of years to cross a line between humans and things—things talking directly to other things as well as to people—setting in motion a series of technological, social and legal issues that will take years or decades to resolve. On one hand, this is made possible by leaps in processing performance and power management in mobile devices. In his keyno... » read more

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