Some Chipmakers Sidestep Scaling, Others Hedge


The rising cost of developing chips at 7nm coupled with the reduced benefits of scaling have pried open the floodgates for a variety of options involving new materials, architectures and packaging that either were ignored or not fully developed in the past. Some of these approaches are closely tied to new markets, such as assisted and autonomous vehicles, robotics and 5G. Others involve new ... » read more

Week in Review: IoT, Security, Auto


Internet of Things What’s better than a 5G network? How about a local, private 5G network? The Industrial Internet of Things may drive the development of such networks. Of course, 5G cellular communications technology is still being worked out worldwide. BMW, Daimler, and Volkswagen are looking ahead to the future; those automotive manufacturers notified Germany’s Federal Network Agency th... » read more

Psst, Says 5G… Wanna See What My New Antenna Tech Challenge Looks Like?


5G offers incredible potential, enabling 1000X more traffic, 10X faster speeds and an increase in the device battery capacity by 10X! So why hasn’t 5G technology been rolled out yet? The benefits all sound great, but there are also some challenges that need to be addressed. 5G is destined to cause a revolution around the world with burgeoning industries like autonomous driving, internet of... » read more

Panel Fan-out Ramps, Challenges Remain


After years of R&D, panel-level fan-out packaging is finally beginning to ramp up in the market, at least in limited volumes for a few vendors. However, panel-level fan-out, which is an advanced form of today’s fan-out packaging, still faces several technical and cost challenges to bring this technology into the mainstream or high-volume manufacturing. Moreover, several companies are d... » read more

Testing Millimeter Wave for 5G


By Susan Rambo and Ed Sperling The telecommunications world is hurtling toward 5G, but there is no consistency about how this next-gen wireless technology will be rolled out across various regions and plenty of unknowns about how it will be tested and how reliable it will be initially. A fair amount of confusion exists around what 5G constitutes in the first place. There is sub-6GHz 5G, w... » read more

The Big Data Shift Has Started


Terry Brewer, president and CEO of Brewer Science, sat down with Semiconductor Engineering to talk about different priorities for private and public companies, why AI completely changes the game for technology companies, and what impact materials will have on innovation and design in the future. SE: What are the next big opportunities for Brewer Science? Brewer: There are broad opportunit... » read more

Week in Review: IoT, Security, Auto


Internet of Things The expensive implementation of 5G cellular communications may be justified by the Internet of Things, writes Hatem Zeine, founder and chief technology officer of Ossia, a developer of wireless power technology. Bain & Company forecasts the B2B IoT market will be worth more than $300 billion by 2020. IDC predicts overall IoT spending will hit $1.2 trillion in 2022. Mi... » read more

Connected Cars: From Chip To City


As the automotive industry moves closer to autonomous vehicles, ecosystem players are focusing on the infrastructure pieces needed to make autonomous technology a reality for the first adopters, which are most likely commercial fleets. Vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I or v2i) is a communications model that allows vehicles to share information with the components that support a country's hi... » read more

Blog Review: Oct. 31


Mentor's Joe Hupcey III digs into handling memories effectively with formal through abstraction and the easiest ways to address memory-related inconclusive results. Cadence's Paul McLellan explains DARPA's CHIPS program that aims to lower semiconductor design costs through chiplet-based designs, the current status of the work, and what the next steps will be. Synopsys' Sangeeta Kulkarni c... » read more

Week in Review: IoT, Security, Auto


Internet of Things Arm aims to accelerate Linux-based embedded design through providing quick access to the Cortex-A5 CPU under the Arm DesignStart program. Developers can work on embedded and Internet of Things system-on-a-chip devices for gateways, medical systems, smart homes, and wearable electronics. IP access to the Cortex-A5 is now $75,000, with one-year of design support from Arm exper... » read more

← Older posts Newer posts →