Striking A Balance On Efficiency, Performance, And Cost


Experts at the Table: Semiconductor Engineering sat down to discuss power-related issues such as voltage droop, application-specific processing elements, the impact of physical effects in advanced packaging, and the benefits of backside power delivery, with Hans Yeager, senior principal engineer, architecture, at Tenstorrent; Joe Davis, senior director for Calibre interfaces and EM/IR product m... » read more

Defect Challenges Grow At The Wafer Edge


Reducing defects on the wafer edge, bevel, and backside is becoming essential as the complexity of developing leading-edge chips continue to increase, and where a single flaw can have costly repercussions that span multiple processes and multi-chip packages. This is made more difficult by the widespread rollout of such processes as hybrid bonding, which require pristine surfaces, and the gro... » read more

Promises and Perils of Parallel Test


Testing multiple devices at the same time is not providing the equivalent reduction in overall test time due to a combination of test execution issues, the complexity of the devices being tested, and the complex tradeoffs required for parallelism. Parallel testing is now the norm — from full wafer probe DRAM testing with thousands of dies to two-site testing for complex, high-performance c... » read more

Standardizing Defect Coverage In Analog/Mixed Signal Test


A newly drafted IEEE standard will bring more consistency to defect metrics in analog/mixed (AMS) designs, a long-overdue step that has become too difficult to ignore in the costly heterogeneous assemblies being deployed inside of data centers and mobile devices. Standardizing analog is no simple feat due to the legacy approach to AMS design, and this is not the first attempt at improving te... » read more

Balancing Programmability And Performance In Cars


The rate of change in the automotive industry is accelerating with the shift toward software-defined vehicles and ongoing advancements in algorithms and chip architectures. The challenge now is to figure out the best way to prevent rapid obsolescence, improve safety, and keep the cost of these changes to a minimum. Today, updatable automotive hardware is typically achieved through FPGAs, but... » read more

Photonics Could Reduce The Cost Of Lidar


Using light to move data over shorter distances is becoming more common, both because there is much more data to move around and because photons are faster and cooler than electrons. Using optical fiber for mission-critical communication is already well established. It has been the preferred PHY for long-haul communications for decades because it doesn’t suffer from the attenuation losses ... » read more

Security Improving For Low-Cost Hardware


Security has been a priority in software for decades, but only recently has it begun catching up in chips — particularly those in inexpensive devices. The disconnect is that while these devices are low-cost, they often are connected to the same networks as more sophisticated devices and repositories for valuable data. It's not unusual for the entry point in ransomware or distributed denial... » read more

New AI Processors Architectures Balance Speed With Efficiency


Leading AI systems designs are migrating away from building the fastest AI processor possible, adopting a more balanced approach that involves highly specialized, heterogeneous compute elements, faster data movement, and significantly lower power. Part of this shift revolves around the adoption of chiplets in 2.5D/3.5D packages, which enable greater customization for different workloads and ... » read more

AI’s Role In Chip Design Widens, Drawing In New Startups


Using AI in EDA is reinvigorating the whole tools industry, prompting established players to upgrade their tool offerings with AI/ML features, while drawing in startups trying to carve out differentiated approaches to fill unaddressed gaps with new tools and methodologies. Today’s new generation of entrepreneurs is comprised of both young post-grads with innovative ideas and industry veter... » read more

Edge Devices Require New Security Approaches


The diversity of connected devices and chips at the edge — the vaguely defined middle ground between the end point and the cloud — is significantly widening the potential attack surface and creating more opportunities for cyberattacks. The edge build-out has been underway for at least the past half-decade, largely driven by an explosion in data and increasing demands to process that data... » read more

← Older posts Newer posts →