category: Top Stories

category: Auto, Security & Edge AI

Observability Is A Missing Layer In AI-Era Chiplet Design
By Ann Mutschler - 01 Jul, 2026 - Comments: 0

Key Takeaways: In chiplet-based architectures, observability must be designed as a fabric-aligned, cross-die telemetry plane so architects can correlate traffic, latency, congestion, and fault behavior across package boundaries without losing system context. AI can extract value from high-volume silicon telemetry only when the architecture provides consistent instrumentation, near-senso... » read more

I/O Design Challenges Grow In AI Data Centers And HPC Clusters
By Liz Allan - 25 Jun, 2026 - Comments: 0

Key Takeaways: A designer’s choice of I/O connectors and interconnect protocols can be the difference between a massively profitable AI chip and a flop. I/O tradeoffs impact airflow, cooling, rack design, power coming into the rack, and other critical aspects of HPC chip design. Reliability is paramount, so standards must be followed, and I/Os need redundant pins. Other innovations... » read more

Verification Methodologies Struggle To Keep Up With AI
By Brian Bailey - 25 Jun, 2026 - Comments: 0

Key Takeaways:  The rapid development of AI has resulted in new capabilities being provided to verification teams, beyond their ability to rationally insert them into accepted methodologies.  There is a lot of uncertainty about who will benefit the most from this technology. Is AI a junior engineer replacement or an enhancer?  The biggest benefits will come when AI helps engineers... » read more

Executive Outlook: Agentic AI’s Impact On Chip Design
By Ed Sperling - 25 Jun, 2026 - Comments: 0

Key Takeaways: Agentic AI has the potential to make engineers more productive, speed time to market, and automate some of the drudge work. The big challenge for design and verification engineers is where and whether they trust AI to get everything right, because there is no margin for error in semiconductors. Having humans in the loop will likely be the rule rather than the exception... » read more

Mask Economics Shape High-NA EUV Adoption
By Gregory Haley - 22 Jun, 2026 - Comments: 0

Key Takeaways: Mask costs are not stopping leading-edge scaling, but they increasingly influence design, node, and process choices. High-NA EUV will tighten requirements for CD, EPE, local CDU, mask 3D modeling, stitching, and materials. Reduced depth of focus in High-NA EUV will drive new resist, etch, film, and absorber approaches. Experts at the table: Semiconductor Engin... » read more

How To Build Billions of Bumps
By Bryon Moyer - 18 Jun, 2026 - Comments: 0

Key Takeaways: Hybrid bonding can result in a package containing billions (and eventually trillions) of connections. Building that many connections successfully requires extreme process uniformity across a wafer. Inspection isn’t practical, and test benefits from internal test mechanisms. Hybrid bonding allows unprecedented signal pitch, but fully populating dies and inter... » read more

GaN Power Devices Go Vertical
By Katherine Derbyshire - 18 Jun, 2026 - Comments: 0

Key Takeaways: On paper, GaN is an excellent candidate for high-voltage power applications. That potential has been difficult to realize due to the lack of sufficiently high-quality starting material. In particular, high-voltage applications require vertical designs. Recent advances in GaN growth are making these designs more feasible. Promising designs and complete process flows hav... » read more

Designing Chips That Can Explain Themselves
By Ann Mutschler - 17 Jun, 2026 - Comments: 1

Key Takeaways: On-die telemetry gives architects a path to replace worst-case design margin with measured silicon behavior, improving PPA without compromising resilience. As monitor density and control-loop speed increase, observability must be architected hierarchically across local hardware response, on-die processing, and fleet-level learning. The real payoff is architectural: str... » read more

Wi-Fi Flies Higher As Edge AI Build-Out Takes Root
By Ed Sperling - 15 Jun, 2026 - Comments: 0

Key Takeaways: Wi-Fi 7 is becoming an essential technology for edge AI, and subequent demands for even better reliability will grow as the edge build-out takes shape. Edge computing is based on the assumption that more data will be processed and stored locally, which will help reduce data leakage and theft. The big challenge ahead will be orchestrating data movement across different ... » read more

Agentic AI Is Changing Data Center Architectures
By Ann Mutschler - 11 Jun, 2026 - Comments: 0

Key Takeaways: The rise of agentic AI is shifting data centers from GPU-centric number crunching to CPU-driven orchestration, where managing long-running reasoning loops and context is just as important as raw compute. Integrating CPUs, GPUs, and stacked memory into tightly coupled multi-die architectures with varying workloads makes it much harder to ensure they will be reliable and ef... » read more

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