Three Key Aspects Of IP Quality


It’s no secret that today’s huge system-on-chip (SoC) projects require massive amounts of design reuse. No team, no matter how talented, can design a billion or more gates from scratch. They use extensive borrowing of RTL code from previous and related projects, plus hundreds of thousands of instantiated IP blocks from internal libraries, open-source repositories, development partners, and ... » read more

Chip Design Teams And Restaurant Kitchen Staff Have A Lot In Common


By Anagha Pandharpurkar Believe it or not, electronic device and systems-design teams have a lot in common with kitchen staff in big commercial restaurants: They both leverage many different tools and resources to churn out great products in a high-pressure environment to a demanding audience that wants it now, not tomorrow. Unfortunately, design teams are often not nearly as well equippe... » read more

Outlook: DRAM, NAND, Next-Gen Memory


Jim Handy, director at Objective Analysis, sat down with Semiconductor Engineering to talk about the 3D NAND, DRAM and next-generation memory markets. What follows are excerpts of that discussion. SE: How would you characterize the NAND market thus far in 2021? Handy: All chips are seeing unusual strength in 2021, but NAND flash and DRAM are doing what they usually do by exhibiting more e... » read more

Apple’s First GaN Charger


It has been heavily rumored and anticipated for a few years now, but we have finally seen Apple make the switch to using gallium nitride (GaN) as the power transistor in one of their charging products: the 140 W charger for the new 16-inch MacBook Pro. As has been the case with many innovations in the past, Apple may not be the first, but when they do adopt a technology people take notice! A... » read more

Novel Reversible Chain Diagnosis Improves Resolution


Yield ramp for ICs designed on advanced process technologies faces new challenges because of the very complicated silicon defect types and defect distribution. Yield ramp and yield improvement are not just about profitability and time-to-market, but also have a role in today’s electronics supply chain crisis. That means yield ramp affects not just the IC maker, but the global economy. Ever... » read more

Solving Real World AI Productization Challenges With Adaptive Computing


The field of artificial intelligence (AI) moves swiftly, with the pace of innovation only accelerating. While the software industry has been successful in deploying AI in production, the hardware industry – including automotive, industrial, and smart retail – is still in its infancy in terms of AI productization. Major gaps still exist that hinder AI algorithm proof-of-concepts (PoC) from b... » read more

Getting Better Edge Performance & Efficiency From Acceleration-Aware ML Model Design


The advent of machine learning techniques has benefited greatly from the use of acceleration technology such as GPUs, TPUs and FPGAs. Indeed, without the use of acceleration technology, it’s likely that machine learning would have remained in the province of academia and not had the impact that it is having in our world today. Clearly, machine learning has become an important tool for solving... » read more

Customize Off-The-Shelf Processor IP


Processor customization is one approach to optimizing a processor IP core to handle a certain workload. In some case it makes sense to design a dedicated core from scratch, but in many cases an existing core may partially meet your requirements and can be a good starting point for your optimized core. In the past some processor IP vendors, notably ARC and Tensilica, offered extensible cores ... » read more

The Road To Osmosis


It’s happening. Some may have speculated that, with the acquisition of OneSpin by Siemens, the OneSpin user group meeting, more commonly known as Osmosis, would be formally (pun intended) absorbed into a larger Siemens event. Well, I’m here to tell you that Osmosis is officially on the books and will continue to focus on the specific area of formal verification. The team has been working di... » read more

Why Mask Blanks Are Critical


Geoff Akiki, president of Hoya LSI at the Hoya Group, sat down with Semiconductor Engineering to talk about optical and extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography as well as mask blanks. What follows are excerpts of that discussion. SE: Mask blanks are components that serve as the base or the substrate for a photomask. Why are they critical? Akiki: If you look at Hoya, we've been positioned as... » read more

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