Automakers Changing Tactics On Reliability


Automakers are beginning to rethink how to ensure automotive electronics will remain reliable over their projected lifetimes, focusing their efforts on redundancy, more data-centric architectures and continued testing throughout the life of a vehicle. It is still too early to really know how automotive chips actually will perform over the next 15 to 20 years, especially AI logic developed at... » read more

Big Growth Areas: Connectivity, AI, Reliability


Connectivity and artificial intelligence (AI) will be the biggest drivers for 2020, with an emphasis on improved reliability across all areas. New standards, new applications, and new pressures being placed on old technology will created boundless opportunities for those ready to fill the need. Of course, there will also be a lot of carnage along the way, and we can expect to see a lot of that ... » read more

Auto Industry Shifts Gears On Where Data Gets Processed


In-vehicle processing is becoming a major challenge in automotive electronics due to the massive amount of data being generated by sensors — especially cameras — and the rapid response time required to avoid accidents. The initial idea that all data could be sent to the cloud for processing has been shelved, most likely permanently. In its place is a growing recognition that data needs t... » read more

Manufacturing Bits: Jan. 7


Beyond 5G chips At the recent IEEE International Electron Devices Meeting (IEDM), NTT and the Tokyo Institute of Technology presented a paper on a technology that could enable high-speed wireless devices beyond the 5G standard. Researchers have devised a 300GHz wireless transceiver (TRx) that supports a data rate of more than 100Gb/s. The device is based on a technology called indium phosph... » read more

CEO Outlook: 2020 Vision


The start of 2020 is looking very different than the start of 2019. Markets that looked hazy at the start of 2019, such as 5G, are suddenly very much in focus. The glut of memory chips that dragged down the overall chip industry in 2019 has subsided. And a finely tuned supply chain that took decades to develop is splintering. A survey of CEOs from across the industry points to several common... » read more

Improving Algorithms With High-Level Synthesis


Most computer algorithms today are developed in high-level languages on general-purpose computers. But someday they may be deployed in embedded systems where the development, verification, and validation of algorithms is done in languages like python, Java, C++, or even numerical frameworks like MatLab. This is the goal of high-level synthesis (HLS), and it aims to solve a fundamental proble... » read more

What Engineers Are Reading And Watching


By Brian Bailey And Ed Sperling An important indicator of where the chip industry is heading is what engineers are reading and what videos they are watching. While some subjects remain on top, such as the level of interest in the latest manufacturing technologies, other areas come and go. The stories with the biggest traffic numbers are almost identical to last year. Readers want to know wh... » read more

Applications, Ecosystems And System Complexity Will Be Key Verification Drivers For 2020


In my predictions blog last year, I focused on verification throughput and its expected growth in 2019. The four areas I predicted we’d see growth in during 2019 were scalable performance, unbound capacity including cloud enablement, smart bug hunting and multi-level abstractions. In 2018, the five key verification drivers that I identified were security, safety, application specificity, proc... » read more

What Worked, What Didn’t In 2019


2019 has been a tough year for semiconductor companies from a revenue standpoint, especially for memory companies. On the other hand, the EDA industry has seen another robust growth year. A significant portion of this disparity can be attributed to the number of emerging technology areas for semiconductors, none of which has reached volume production yet. Some markets continue to struggle, a... » read more

Power/Performance Bits: Dec. 16


Carbon nanotubes for RF Researchers at Carbonics, Inc., University of Southern California, and King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology, funded by the Army Research Office, propose using carbon nanotubes for radio frequency applications. The team's carbon nanotube device beat traditional RF-CMOS technology, achieved speeds exceeding 100GHz. This could boost mmWave, which in turn would... » read more

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