With Responsibility Comes Power


The debate continues as to whether [getkc id="106" kc_name="power"] has risen to become a primary design consideration, or if it remains secondary to functionality and performance. What is indisputable is the rise in the importance of both power and energy conservation. As technology improves, additional aspects of the design flow are being affected. With that, the focus for power reduction is ... » read more

Power Management Verification Requires Holistic Approach


Semiconductor Engineering sat down to discuss power management [getkc id="10" kc_name="Verification"] issues with Arvind Shanmugavel, senior director, applications engineering at [getentity id="22021" e_name="Ansys-Apache"]; Guillaume Boillet, technical marketing manager at [getentity id="22026" e_name="Atrenta"]; Adam Sherer, verification product management director at [getentity id="22032" e_... » read more

Reliability Definition Is Changing


Since the invention of the integrated circuit, reliability has been defined by how long a chip continues to work. It either turned on and did what it was designed to do, or it didn't. But that definition is no longer so black-and-white. Parts of an SoC, or even an IP or memory block, can continue to function while other parts do not. Some may work intermittently, or at lower speeds. Others may ... » read more

One-On-One: Walid Abu-Hadba


Walid Abu-Hadba, chief product officer at [getentity id="22021" e_name="Ansys"] (and a former top executive at Microsoft), sat down with Semiconductor Engineering to talk about systems engineering and why the starting point is no longer the SoC. What follows are excerpts of that conversation. SE: How do you define system? Abu-Hadba: It's everything. It's the entire product and where the p... » read more

Software-Driven Verification (Part 3)


[getkc id="10" comment="Functional Verification"] has been powered by tools that require hardware to look like the kinds of systems that were being designed two decades ago. Those limitations are putting chips at risk and a new approach to the problem is long overdue. Semiconductor Engineering sat down with Frank Schirrmeister, group director, product marketing for System Development Suite at [... » read more

Challenges For IC Security


Keeping chips secure is really a foot race between the good guys and the bad guys. Going forward, expect heavily funded, grouped efforts to place tremendous pressure on security envelopes. This includes everything from simple home devices, such as routers, to the most critical infrastructures, such as power, telecom, transportation, and soon, the IoT. Fig. 1: Courtesy of Blade Genexis I... » read more

FD-SOI Meets The IoT


Silicon-on-insulator manufacturing technology has been discussed for many years. IBM has used the partially depleted variation of SOI in its server products, but the fully depleted version has yet to find widespread adoption outside of mil/aero and automotive markets. That may change soon as applications in the Internet of Things ramp, given the requirements for ultra low power and low cost.... » read more

BLE For The IoT


Bluetooth low-energy (BLE) is one of the emerging disruptive technologies for the IoT. Also referred to as Bluetooth low-power and Bluetooth smart, as the Bluetooth SIG is calling it, this technology will enable the next level of IoT vertical devices, such as medical devices, home automation, retail, wearables, and much more. For consumers, it comes down to the Internet of Your Things (Io... » read more

IoT Will Force New Memory Paradigm


There are two things in life that have always been true: One is that you can never be too rich, and second—at least since the dawn of the technological age—you can never have too much memory. But the memory truism is changing with the onset of the [getkc id="76" comment="Internet of Things"]. The next generation of memory for the IoT must meet a different set of metrics – smaller, smar... » read more

IoT Requires New Internet Protocol


It is no secret that the 4 billion-plus Internet Protocol Version 4 (IPv4) addresses are just about used up. According, the American Registry for Internet Numbers (ARIN), “phase 4” of its IPv4 countdown plan kicked in last June. There are now fewer than 17 million IPv4 addresses remaining, which for all practical purposes means the pool is depleted. That should hasten the move to IPv6, b... » read more

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