New AI Data Types Emerge


AI is all about data, and the representation of the data matters strongly. But after focusing primarily on 8-bit integers and 32‑bit floating-point numbers, the industry is now looking at new formats. There is no single best type for every situation, because the choice depends on the type of AI model, whether accuracy, performance, or power is prioritized, and where the computing happens, ... » read more

A Comprehensive Guide to Understanding AI Inference on the CPU


As AI continues to revolutionize industries, new workloads, like generative AI, inspire new use cases, the demand for efficient and scalable AI-based solutions has never been greater. While training often garners attention, inference—the process of applying trained models to new data—is essential for AI workloads, whether they are running in the cloud, or enabling real-world applications at... » read more

RISC-V’s Software Portability Challenge


Experts At The Table: RISC-V provides a platform for customization, but verifying those changes remains challenging. Semiconductor Engineering discussed the issue with John Min, vice president of customer service at Arteris; ZdenÄ›k PÅ™ikryl, CTO of Codasip; Neil Hand, director of marketing at Siemens EDA (at the time of this discussion); Frank Schirrmeister, executive director for strategi... » read more

Chip Industry Week In Review


Analog Devices acquired Flex Logix's technology assets, along with its technical team. Semiconductor global sales increased 23% in Q3 2024 $166B, up almost 11% versus the same period in 2023, according to SIA. Notable regional year-to-year sales in September: Americas up 46%, China up 23%, Europe down 8%. Fig.1: Worldwide Semiconductor Revenues, year-to-year % change. Source: Semiconduc... » read more

Blog Review: Nov. 6


Cadence's Satish Kumar C explores how the Deferrable Memory Write transaction type in PCIe and CXL can improve latency, efficiency, and performance by delaying certain memory write operations during system bus congestion or until other priority tasks are complete and highlights implementation and verification challenges. Synopsys' Daryl Seitzer and Rahul Thukral point to magnetoresistive RAM... » read more

EMEA Investments Driving Technology Specialization


Government programs across Europe and the UK are seeing a surge of investments in leading edge technology, materials, and packaging. Industry and academia are coalescing around specialty areas, drawing on established relationships to foster innovation and fill gaps in regional supply chains while also maintaining international bonds. Government initiatives also are picking up in Israel, Saudi A... » read more

Chip Industry Week In Review


Siemens announced plans to acquire Altair Engineering, a provider of industrial simulation and analysis, data science, and high-performance computing (HPC) software, for about $10 billion. Altair's software will become part of Siemens' Xcelerator portfolio and provide a boost to physics-based digital twins. Onto Innovation bought Lumina Instruments, a San Jose, California-based maker of lase... » read more

Chiplets Make Progress Using Interconnects As Glue


Breaking up SoCs into their component parts and putting those and other pieces together in some type of heterogeneous assembly is beginning to take shape, fueled by advances in interconnects, complex partitioning, and industry learnings about what works and what doesn't. While the vision of plug-and-play remains intact, getting there is a lot more complicated than initially imagined. It can ... » read more

Revolutionizing High-Performance Silicon With Next-Gen Chiplets


By Shivi Arora and Sue Hung Fung As 5G wireless communications systems continue to be deployed, enterprises are busy planning for 6G—the next generation of wireless communications set to transform our lives. Poised to merge communication and computing, 6G promises to create a hyperconnected world that blends digital and physical experiences with ultra-fast speeds and low latency as a start... » read more

Blog Review: Oct. 30


Synopsys' Frank Schirrmeister argues that hardware-assisted verification techniques like emulation and prototyping are essential to help engineers improve design behavior to manage complexity and ensure systems function seamlessly in real-world applications. Siemens’ Stephen V. Chavez finds that ultra high-density interconnect (UHDI) has changed the design and production of PCBs to enable ... » read more

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