Gaps In Performance, Power Coverage


The semiconductor industry always has used metrics to define progress, and in areas such as functional verification significant advances have been made. But so far, no effective metrics have been developed for power, performance, or other system-level concerns, which basically means that design teams have to run blind. On the plus side, the industry has migrated from the use of code coverage... » read more

Power, Standards And The IoT


Semiconductor Engineering sat down to discuss power, standards and the IoT with Jerry Frenkil, director of open standards at [getentity id="22055" comment="Si2"]; Frank Schirrmeister, group director of product marketing of the System Development Suite at [getentity id="22032" e_name="Cadence"]; Randy Smith, vice president of marketing at [getentity id="22605" e_name="Sonics"]; and Vojin Zivojno... » read more

Abstraction: Necessary But Evil


Abstraction allows aspects of a design to be described in an executable form much earlier in the flow. But some abstractions are breaking down, and an increasing amount of lower-level information has to be brought upstream in order to provide estimates that are close enough to reality so informed decisions can be made. The value of abstractions in design cannot be overstated. High levels of ... » read more

Making Flexible OLED Displays


Organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) are supposedly the next big thing in display technology. In fact, over the years, several display makers have spent billions of dollars to build new and large OLED fabs. To be sure, OLEDs enable brighter displays, as compared to traditional LCD technology. OLEDs use a series of thin, light-emitting films, which enables the display to produce brighter li... » read more

Security In 2.5D


The long-anticipated move to 2.5D and fan-outs is raising some familiar questions about security. Will multiple chips combined in an advanced package be as secure as SoCs where everything is integrated on the same die? The answer isn't a simple yes or no. Put in perspective, all chips are vulnerable to [getkc id="253" kc_name="side channel attacks"], hacking of memory—a risk that increases... » read more

The Quantum IoE


The principle of quantum communication (QC) is that it can transfer a quantum state between locations. The significance of that cannot be overstated. This is what we can look to for the delivery of the super-secure communications networks of the future. This kind of secure communications is made to order for the IoE (and, of course, many other platforms). No matter how simple or complex the ... » read more

The Challenge Of Updating Cars


News stories about automotive hacking are becoming more common, and so is the concern about how to curb this problem. Security has become a new layer of system design complexity, and it's being taken increasingly seriously in a market that until very recently largely ignored it. That attitude is changing rapidly though, particularly with the advent of autonomous and connected vehicles. Secu... » read more

The Rise Of Dynamic Networks


The Internet of the future, and particularly the [getkc id="260" comment="Internet of Everything"], will be interlaced with millions if not billions of intelligent, dynamic, self-organizing networks. These networks will be full of elements that are capable of autonomic self-registration across these multitudes of networks. It is one thing to put up a security perimeter when you know who the... » read more

Security Made Easier


The FIDO (Fast IDentity Online) Alliance was formed in July 2012 to address the lack of interoperability among strong authentication devices as well as the problems users face with creating and remembering multiple usernames and passwords. The FIDO Alliance’s mission is to change the landscape of authentication by eliminating the reliance on passwords. This is accomplished by developing speci... » read more

A Primer For The 802.XX Physical Layer


This is the second installment of the 802.XX for the IoE series of articles. The first one was published in the August issue and addressed the Media Access Control (MAC) layer. In this article, we will examine the elements of the physical (PHY) layer of the 802.11 protocol stack. For reference, the protocol stack is shown in figure 1. The best designs, like everything else, are built on a so... » read more

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