category: Top Stories

category: Auto, Security & Edge AI

MEMS Goes Mainstream
By Ed Sperling - 29 Nov, 2012 - Comments: 0

By Cheryl Coupé Micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) are well known for enabling innovative capabilities for devices that range from vehicles and gaming to smartphones and tablets—and increasingly in personal health and fitness, security, and environmental applications. As stacked die become more popular, they also will become part of the integration challenge that chipmakers will wrestle... » read more

Engineering Change Orders Revisited
By Ed Sperling - 29 Nov, 2012 - Comments: 0

By Ed Sperling The perennial nightmare of the marketing head reporting that a customer will buy a design—but only if it fits into a specific power envelope or has better performance or I/O—is all too familiar to engineering teams. In theory, using more third-party IP should help alleviate this problem because the IP can be changed out relatively easily. The reality, though, is that it�... » read more

Prototyping Now A ‘Must Have’
By Ed Sperling - 29 Nov, 2012 - Comments: 0

By Ann Steffora Mutschler No longer a ‘nice to have,’ FPGA-based prototyping is now indispensible for SoC and ASIC development. Semiconductor companies are investing in the infrastructure, the EDA tool chain, the human resources and everything needed to set up an entire department to focus on prototyping, emulation and validation. “We are seeing these customers invest in significant a... » read more

New Apps For 3D Chips
By Ed Sperling - 15 Nov, 2012 - Comments: 0

By Mark LaPedus Semiconductor Manufacturing and; Design sat down to discuss the 3D device challenges and applications with Peter Ramm, head of the department for device and 3D integration at Fraunhofer EMFT Munich, one of Europe’s largest research organizations. SMD: Fraunhofer was a pioneer in 3D chip R&D, right? Ramm: We are the oldest microelectronics institute in Germany. We st... » read more

How To Make A Brain-On-A-Chip
By Mark LaPedus - 15 Nov, 2012 - Comments: 0

By Mark LaPedus In October, Draper Laboratory and the University of South Florida (USF) disclosed an ambitious plan to develop a brain-on-a-chip. The idea is to devise a “micro-environment’’ that mimics the human brain. Researchers hope to study neurodegenerative conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease, strokes and concussions. The eventual goal is to study the effects of drugs and v... » read more

Node Skipping Reaches New Heights
By Ed Sperling - 15 Nov, 2012 - Comments: 0

By Mark LaPedus For years, silicon foundries have rolled out their respective leading-edge processes roughly on a two-year cadence. The long-standing goal has been to keep foundry customers on a competitive price, power and performance curve. But as leading-edge chipmakers move from the 28nm node and beyond, the predictable process progression is changing. And the phenomenon of “node skip... » read more

Facing Up To RC Delay
By Ed Sperling - 15 Nov, 2012 - Comments: 0

y Ed Sperling Resistance and capacitance delays have always been someone else’s problem to solve at some fuzzy process node in the future, and for the most part manufacturers and equipment makers have done a wizard-like job of making this problem go away. They can’t make it disappear anymore, though, and beginning at 14nm and beyond RC delay is becoming more than just an annoyance. The ... » read more

Mobile Memory Madness
By Ed Sperling - 15 Nov, 2012 - Comments: 0

By Mark LaPedus The insatiable thirst for more bandwidth in smartphones, tablets and other devices has prompted an industry standards body to revamp its mobile memory interface roadmap. As part of the changes, the Joint Electron Devices Engineering Council (JEDEC) has scaled back the initial version of Wide I/O technology and pushed out the introduction date of a true 3D stacked architectur... » read more

Spoiled By Moore’s Law
By Ed Sperling - 08 Nov, 2012 - Comments: 0

By Ann Steffora Mutschler Over the past 20 years, lithium ion has emerged as the predominant battery technology. While there are a few variants, it seems that for everything from smartphones to automobiles, the same basic technology is being used. Many other technologies that have come and gone over the years—nickel cadmium, nickel metal hydride come to mind in the recent past, but they ar... » read more

More Art Than Science
By Ed Sperling - 08 Nov, 2012 - Comments: 0

By Ann Steffora Mutschler Not so long ago, high-end digital devices were mostly just digital. Today large SoCs contain a significant amount of analog/mixed-signal content. And given that analog circuits have certain sensitivities different from digital blocks, there is a desire to convert some of those analog signals to digital to achieve power savings and take advantage of digital verificat... » read more

← Older posts Newer posts →

  • Sponsors

About

Navigation

Connect With Us

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