category: Top Stories

category: Auto, Security & Edge AI

Chip Aging Accelerates
By Ed Sperling - 14 Feb, 2018 - Comments: 1

Reliability is becoming an increasingly important proof point for new chips as they are rolled out in new markets such as automotive, cloud computing and industrial IoT, but actually proving that a chip will function as expected over time is becoming much more difficult. In the past, reliability generally was considered a foundry issue. Chips developed for computers and phones were designed ... » read more

New Thermal Issues Emerge
By Ann Mutschler - 12 Feb, 2018 - Comments: 0

Thermal monitoring is becoming more critical as gate density continues to increase at each new node and as chips are developed for safety critical markets such as automotive. This may sound counterintuitive because the whole point of device scaling is to increase gate density. But at 10/7 and 7/5nm, static current leakage is becoming a bigger issue, raising questions about how long [getkc id... » read more

The Race To Accelerate
By Ed Sperling - 12 Feb, 2018 - Comments: 1

Geoff Tate, CEO of [getentity id="22921" e_name="Flex Logix"], sat down with Semiconductor Engineering to discuss how the chip industry is changing, why that bodes well for embedded FPGAs, and what you need to be aware of when using programmable logic on the same die as other devices. What follows are excerpts of that conversation. SE: What are the biggest challenges facing the chip industry... » read more

Bridging Machine Learning’s Divide
By Brian Bailey - 08 Feb, 2018 - Comments: 0

There is a growing divide between those researching [getkc id="305" comment="machine learning"] (ML) in the cloud and those trying to perform inferencing using limited resources and power budgets. Researchers are using the most cost-effective hardware available to them, which happens to be GPUs filled with floating point arithmetic units. But this is an untenable solution for embedded infere... » read more

Pushing Performance Limits
By Brian Bailey - 08 Feb, 2018 - Comments: 0

Trying to squeeze the last bit of performance out of a chip sounds like a good idea, but it increases risk and cost, extends development time, reduced yield, and it may even limit the environments in which the chip can operate. And yet, given the amount of margin added at every step of the development process, it seems obvious that plenty of improvements could be made. "Every design can be o... » read more

Turning Down The Voltage
By Ann Mutschler - 08 Feb, 2018 - Comments: 0

Designers of large, advanced-node SoCs are grappling with a number of pressures in the quest to achieve the optimal performance and power of their designs. This has turned into a challenging balancing act between using less power, especially for consumer technologies, while also providing the same or greater performance and increased functionality. [getkc id="108" kc_name="Power"] and perfor... » read more

Imperfect Silicon, Near-Perfect Security
By Kevin Fogarty - 07 Feb, 2018 - Comments: 0

Some chipmakers, under pressure to add security to rapidly growing numbers of IoT devices, have rediscovered a "fingerprinting" technique used primarily as an anti-counterfeiting measure. [getkc id="227" kc_name="Physically unclonable functions"] (PUFs) are used to assign a unique identification number based on inconsistencies in the speed with which current causes a series of logic gates to... » read more

Fan-Out Wars Begin
By Mark LaPedus - 05 Feb, 2018 - Comments: 3

Several packaging houses are developing the next wave of high-density fan-out packages for premium smartphones, but perhaps a bigger battle is brewing in the lower density fan-out arena. Amkor, ASE, STATS ChipPAC and others sell traditional low-density fan-out packages, although some new and competitive technologies are beginning to appear in the market. Low-density fan-out, or sometimes cal... » read more

Cheaper Packaging Options Ahead
By Ed Sperling - 05 Feb, 2018 - Comments: 0

Lower-cost packaging options and interconnects are either under development or just being commercialized, all of which could have a significant impact on the economics of advanced packaging. By far, the most cited reason why companies don't adopt advanced [getkc id="27" kc_name="packaging"] is cost. Currently, silicon [getkc id="204" kc_name="interposers"] add about $30 to the price of a med... » read more

Testing Analog Chips
By Jeff Dorsch - 05 Feb, 2018 - Comments: 0

The world of analog components is broad and diverse, and while testing analog chips may not take as long as running tests on complex SoCs, there are different requirements for analog devices. One type of chip that's seeing more application these days is analog microelectromechanical system devices. Automotive electronics call for a number of [getkc id="37" kc_name="analog"] chips, along with... » read more

← Older posts Newer posts →

  • Sponsors

About

Navigation

Connect With Us

Copyright ©2013-2026 SMG   |  Terms of Service  |  Privacy Policy