Which Chip Interconnect Protocol Is Better?

By Ed Sperling - 11 May, 2020 - Comments: 0

Semiconductor Engineering sat down to the discuss the pros and cons of the Compute Express Link (CXL) and the Cache Coherent Interconnect for Accelerators (CCIX) with Kurt Shuler, vice president of marketing at Arteris IP; Richard Solomon, technical marketing manager for PCI Express controller IP at Synopsys; and Jitendra Mohan, CEO of Astera Labs. What follows are excerpts of that conversation... » read more

Inference Moves To The Network

By Bryon Moyer - 07 May, 2020 - Comments: 0

Machine-learning inference started out as a data-center activity, but tremendous effort is being put into inference at the edge. At this point, the “edge” is not a well-defined concept, and future inference capabilities will reside not only at the extremes of the data center and a data-gathering device, but at multiple points in between. “Inference isn't a function that has to resid... » read more

Vehicle Communications Network Is Due For Overhaul

By Ann Mutschler - 07 May, 2020 - Comments: 1

The Controller Area Network (CAN), one of the main communications networks in an automobile, is headed for a security overhaul — if not a wholesale replacement. Initially devised in the 1980s to allow electronic components in a vehicle to communicate directly without a central computer in between, the CAN bus has become a growing security risk as more functions are automated and integrated... » read more

Making Sense Of PUFs

By Bryon Moyer - 07 May, 2020 - Comments: 3

As security becomes a principal design consideration, physically unclonable functions (PUFs) are seeing renewed interest as new players emerge onto the market. PUFs can play a central role in hardware roots of trust (HRoTs), but the messaging in the market can make it confusing to understand the different types of PUF as well as their pros and cons. PUFs leverage some uncertain aspect of som... » read more

Tracking Automotive’s Rapidly Shifting Ecosystem

By Ann Mutschler - 02 Apr, 2020 - Comments: 0

The automotive ecosystem is becoming much harder to navigate as automakers, Tier 1s and IP vendors redefine their relationships based upon shifting value caused by an rapidly expanding amount of increasingly interdependent and complex electronic content. Predictions of massive change started almost a decade ago with a number of pilot programs around autonomous vehicles. But those shifts real... » read more

New Ways To Optimize Machine Learning

By Bryon Moyer - 02 Apr, 2020 - Comments: 1

As more designers employ machine learning (ML) in their systems, they’re moving from simply getting the application to work to optimizing the power and performance of their implementations. Some techniques are available today. Others will take time to percolate through the design flow and tools before they become readily available to mainstream designers. Any new technology follows a basic... » read more

More Multiply-Accumulate Operations Everywhere

By Ed Sperling - 02 Apr, 2020 - Comments: 1

Geoff Tate, CEO of Flex Logix, sat down with Semiconductor Engineering to talk about how to build programmable edge inferencing chips, embedded FPGAs, where the markets are developing for both, and how the picture will change over the next few years. SE: What do you have to think about when you're designing a programmable inferencing chip? Tate: With a traditional FPGA architecture you ha... » read more

Battling Persistent Hacks At The Flash Level

By Bryon Moyer - 05 Mar, 2020 - Comments: 0

Hardware vendors are beginning to close up security vulnerabilities across a broader range of technology than in the past, a sign that they are taking potential hardware breaches much more seriously. Awareness of security flaws has been growing since the introduction of Meltdown, Spectre and Foreshadow, and more recently, the Cable Haunt attack. The general conclusion among chipmakers is tha... » read more

New Architectural Issues Facing Auto Ecosystem

By Ann Mutschler - 05 Mar, 2020 - Comments: 0

As chips bound for the automotive world move to small process nodes, including 5nm and below, the automotive ecosystem is wrestling with both scaling issues and challenges related to architecting safety-critical systems using fewer chips. This may sound counterintuitive, because one of the main reasons automotive chip providers are moving to smaller nodes is to reduce the number of chips in ... » read more

Challenges In Printed And Disposable Chips

By Susan Rambo And Ed Sperling - 05 Mar, 2020 - Comments: 0

Printing inexpensive chips using technology developed for newspapers and magazines is gaining traction across a wide range of applications, from photovoltaic cells to sensors on a flexible substrate. But it's also adding a slew of new challenges that are unique to this approach. The world of flexible hybrid electronics (FHE) — printing integrated circuits on or attaching thin IC chips to a... » read more

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Knowledge Centers
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