Flipping Processor Design On Its Head

By Ann Mutschler - 09 Nov, 2023 - Comments: 2

AI is changing processor design in fundamental ways, combining customized processing elements for specific AI workloads with more traditional processors for other tasks. But the tradeoffs are increasingly confusing, complex, and challenging to manage. For example, workloads can change faster than the time it takes to churn out customized designs. In addition, the AI-specific processes may ex... » read more

An Entangled Heterarchy

By Brian Bailey - 09 Nov, 2023 - Comments: 1

For decades, a form of structural hierarchy has been the principal means of handling complexity in chip design. It's not always perfect, and there is no ideal way in which to divide and conquer because that would need to focus on the analysis being performed. In fact, most systems can be viewed from a variety of different hierarchies, equally correct, and together forming a heterarchy. The e... » read more

SRAM In AI: The Future Of Memory

By Karen Heyman - 09 Nov, 2023 - Comments: 0

Experts at the Table: Semiconductor Engineering sat down to talk about AI and the latest issues in SRAM with Tony Chan Carusone, CTO at Alphawave Semi; Steve Roddy, chief marketing officer at Quadric; and Jongsin Yun, memory technologist at Siemens EDA. What follows are excerpts of that conversation. SE: What are the key characteristics of SRAM that will make it suitable for AI workloads... » read more

Startup Funding: October 2023

By Jesse Allen - 08 Nov, 2023 - Comments: 0

Investors are betting heavily on data center technology, with October funding going to companies developing data processing units (DPUs) to accelerate a variety of tasks, a near-memory distributed dataflow architecture for AI, and liquid cooling technology. Much of this is linked to the build-out of the edge, closer to the source of the data than the cloud but not as compute-intensive. Other ... » read more

New Insights Into IC Process Defectivity

By Laura Peters - 07 Nov, 2023 - Comments: 0

Finding critical defects in manufacturing is becoming more difficult due to tighter design margins, new processes, and shorter process windows. Process marginality and parametric outliers used to be problematic at each new node, but now they are persistent problems at several nodes and in advanced packaging, where there may be a mix of different technologies. In addition, there are more proc... » read more

DRAM Test And Inspection Just Gets Tougher

By Anne Meixner - 07 Nov, 2023 - Comments: 0

DRAM manufacturers continue to demand cost-effective solutions for screening and process improvement amid growing concerns over defects and process variability, but meeting that demand is becoming much more difficult with the rollout of faster interfaces and multi-chip packages. DRAM plays a key role in a wide variety of electronic devices, from phones and PCs to ECUs in cars and servers ins... » read more

Rebalancing Test And Yield In IC Manufacturing

By Gregory Haley - 07 Nov, 2023 - Comments: 0

Balancing yield and test is essential to semiconductor manufacturing, but it's becoming harder to determine how much weight to give one versus the other as chips become more specialized for different applications. Yield focuses on maximizing the number of functional chips from a production batch, while test aims to ensure that each chip meets rigorous quality and performance standards. And w... » read more

Bug, Flaw, Or Cyberattack?

By Ann Mutschler - 02 Nov, 2023 - Comments: 0

The lines between counterfeiting, security, and design flaws are becoming increasingly difficult to determine in advanced packages and process nodes, where the number of possible causes of unusual behavior grow exponentially with the complexity of a device. Strange behavior may be due to a counterfeit part, including one that contains a trojan. Or it may be the result of a cyberattack. It al... » read more

For SDVs, Software Is The Biggest Challenge

By John Koon - 02 Nov, 2023 - Comments: 0

Software-defined vehicles (SDVs) involve far more than just OTA applications enabling software upgrades over the air. Software that will manage hundreds of ECUs and other functions within the vehicle is expected to grow beyond hundreds of millions of lines of code, possibly making SDV software development the number one challenge in automotive design. The benefits of SDVs, such as easy updat... » read more

Data Leakage In Heterogeneous Systems

By Ed Sperling - 02 Nov, 2023 - Comments: 0

Semiconductor Engineering sat down with Paul Chou, senior director of security architecture at NVIDIA, to discuss data leakage in heterogeneous designs. What follows are excerpts of that one-on-one interview, which was held in front of a live audience at the Hardwear.io conference. SE: We think about hardware in terms of a chip, but increasingly there is data moving through different systems... » read more

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category: Top Stories

category: IoT, Security & Automotive

Flipping Processor Design On Its Head

An Entangled Heterarchy

SRAM In AI: The Future Of Memory

Startup Funding: October 2023

New Insights Into IC Process Defectivity

DRAM Test And Inspection Just Gets Tougher

Rebalancing Test And Yield In IC Manufacturing

Bug, Flaw, Or Cyberattack?

For SDVs, Software Is The Biggest Challenge

Data Leakage In Heterogeneous Systems

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SRAM In AI: The Future Of Memory