category: Top Stories

category: IoT, Security & Automotive

Taking Energy Into Account
By Ann Mutschler - 28 Aug, 2019 - Comments: 1

Considering power throughout the SoC design flow is common practice. The same cannot be said for energy, although that is beginning to change as chips increasingly incorporate heterogeneous processing elements. Combined with this, AI/ML/DL technologies increasingly allow engineering teams to explore and optimize design data for more targeted and efficient systems. But this approach also requ... » read more

EDA Gears Up For 3D
By Brian Bailey - 26 Aug, 2019 - Comments: 0

Semiconductor Engineering sat down to discuss changes required throughout the ecosystem to support three-dimensional (3D) chip design with Norman Chang, chief technologist for the Semiconductor Business Unit of ANSYS; John Park, product management director for IC packaging and cross-platform solutions at Cadence; John Ferguson, director of marketing for DRC applications at Mentor, a Siemens Bus... » read more

Synthesizing Hardware From Software
By Brian Bailey - 22 Aug, 2019 - Comments: 1

The ability to automatically generate optimized hardware from software was one of the primary tenets of system-level design automation that was never fully achieved. The question now is whether that will ever happen, and whether it is just a matter of having the right technology or motivation to make it possible. While high-level synthesis (HLS) did come out of this work and has proven to be... » read more

What Is A Custom Processor?
By Ann Mutschler - 22 Aug, 2019 - Comments: 2

Spurred by the latest cyclical development boom, the semiconductor industry is entering a new golden era of custom processors, but this time ‘custom processor’ means something different. A generation ago, every major semiconductor company had in-house processors: SuperH, PowerPC, V800, Alpha, MEP, Trimedia, etc., with some specializing more than others for particular domains. But industr... » read more

Chiplets, Faster Interconnects, More Efficiency
By Ed Sperling - 22 Aug, 2019 - Comments: 1

Big chipmakers are turning to architectural improvements such as chiplets, faster throughput both on-chip and off-chip, and concentrating more work per operation or cycle, in order to ramp up processing speeds and efficiency. Taken as a whole, this represents a significant shift in direction for the major chip companies. All of them are wrestling with massive increases in processing demands ... » read more

Siemens-Mentor Deal Retrospective
By Ed Sperling - 21 Aug, 2019 - Comments: 1

Tony Hemmelgarn, president and CEO of Siemens PLM Software and CEO of Mentor, a Siemens Business, sat down with Semiconductor Engineering to talk about the acquisition of Mentor Graphics, the shift toward more customized design, and where AI fits into the design picture. SE: How does a company like Siemens see the EDA industry evolving? Hemmelgarn: Part of the reason we bought Mentor Grap... » read more

Advanced Packaging Options Increase
By Ed Sperling - 19 Aug, 2019 - Comments: 0

Designing, integrating and assembling heterogeneous packages from blocks developed at any process node or cost point is proving to be far more difficult than expected, particularly where high performance is one of the main criteria. At least part of the problem is there is a spectrum of choices, which makes it hard to achieve economies of scale. Even where there is momentum for a particular ... » read more

GaN Versus Silicon For 5G
By Kevin Fogarty - 15 Aug, 2019 - Comments: 0

The global race to launch 5G mmWave frequencies could provide a long-anticipated market opportunity for gallium nitride (GaN) as an alternative to silicon. GaN is more power-efficient than silicon for 5G RF. In fact, GaN has been the heir apparent to silicon in 5G power amplifiers for years, especially when it comes to mmWave 5G networks. What makes it so attractive is its ability to efficie... » read more

The Next New Memories
By Mark LaPedus - 15 Aug, 2019 - Comments: 2

Several next-generation memory types are ramping up after years of R&D, but there are still more new memories in the research pipeline. Today, several next-generation memories, such as MRAM, phase-change memory (PCM) and ReRAM, are shipping to one degree or another. Some of the next new memories are extensions of these technologies. Others are based on entirely new technologies or involve ar... » read more

Wanted: More Fab Tool Part Standards
By Mark LaPedus - 15 Aug, 2019 - Comments: 0

As chipmakers ramp up the next wave of processes and grapple with how to reduce defect levels, they are encountering problems from an unlikely source—components inside of the fab equipment. Defects are unwanted deviations in chips, which impact yields and device performance. Typically, they are caused by an unforeseen glitch during the process flow. But a lesser-known problem involves defe... » read more

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