Blog Review: Dec. 20


Mentor's Andrew Macleod points out five things that need to happen for autonomous and electric cars to move from R&D and test cases to mass-produced, commercially viable vehicles. Synopsys' Iain Singleton provides some tips on tackling large designs with formal and how the assume-guarantee technique helps split them without masking bugs. Cadence's Paul McLellan shares updates from the... » read more

Get Ready For 5G


The 5G wireless rollout, expected to occur over the next few years, will have a major impact on both the number and types of ICs in end-user devices, and on the base stations and repeaters needed to transmit the higher frequency signals. The 5G standard is expected to deliver 10 Gbps of bandwidth— up to 10X the data rates achievable using the advanced forms of 4G— and sub-5ms latencies. ... » read more

Huge Opportunities In Chinese Market


China’s massive semiconductor market and Europe’s prowess in smart car, IoT and other emerging technologies are complementary forces that underscore opportunities for deeper global semiconductor industry cooperation, SEMI China President Lung Chu said in November at the SIIP China Europe Forum during SEMICON Europa in Munich. In his speech “The Rise of China IC Industry – a Global Ec... » read more

Fan-Outs vs. TSVs


Two years ago, at the annual IMAPS conference on 2.5D and 3D chip packaging, the presentations were dominated by talk of fan-out wafer-level packaging. There was almost no talk of through-silicon vias, which previously had been heralded as vital to 2.5D and 3DIC packaging. Fast forward to this month's 3D Architectures for Heterogeneous Integration and Packaging conference in Burlingame, Cali... » read more

Power/Performance Bits: Dec. 12


Sunny days slow 5G 5G networks promise a world of fast wireless data speeds and connected everything.  However, researchers at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University and King Saud University found that hot, sunny weather could degrade 5G cellular transmissions by more than 15%. The researchers focused on how solar radio emissions would affect the unlicensed 60 GHz bands, part of the millimet... » read more

IoT’s Many Different Forms


The Internet of Things is settling into widespread industrial applications, along with precision agriculture, while consumer IoT continues to find its way into the home through smart speakers and their digital assistants, such as Amazon Echo, Apple HomeKit, and Google Home. The Internet of Cows and the Internet of Tomatoes may sound like fanciful subjects, yet there is serious technology in ... » read more

5 Pitfalls That May Kill The IoT


A couple of weeks ago I participated in a panel titled “The Road to a Trillion Devices” organized by Brian Fuller at Arm TechCon. His closing question was whether we will get to the projected trillion devices in twenty years. My answer was that we may even get there faster. His opening question was what the pitfalls would be to make it difficult to get to trillion devices in the next twenty... » read more

Tech Talk: Verification


Frank Schirrmeister, Cadence's senior group director for verification platforms, talks about what's changing in verification with 5G, machine learning, greater connectivity, advanced packaging, and the growing need to build security into designs. https://youtu.be/GMF8BkmdJzE » read more

Here Comes High-Res Car Radar


A dozen or so startups are developing high-resolution radar chips that use various modulation schemes and processes, such as CMOS, FD-SOI and even metamaterials. In theory, high-resolution radar could boost the capabilities of today’s radar for cars, as well as eliminate the need for a separate LiDAR system. But the technology is still in the research stage and has yet to be proven commerc... » read more

Aeponyx: Optical Chips For Telecom


As the amount of data grows, so does interest in silicon photonics. There is no better way to move data than with light. It's faster, requires less energy, and generates less heat. The main trouble spots come in two places—packaging the light source with another chip, and the switching technology from optical to electrical and back to optical. While companies like Intel have been working o... » read more

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