What Scares Chip Engineers About Generative AI


Experts At The Table: LLMs and other generative AI programs are a long way away from being able to design entire chips on their own from scratch, but the emergence of the tech has still raised some genuine concerns. Semiconductor Engineering sat down with a panel of experts, which included Rod Metcalfe, product management group director at Cadence; Syrus Ziai, vice-president of engineering at E... » read more

Thermal Analysis Of 3D Stacking And BEOL Technologies With Functional Partitioning Of Many-Core RISC-V SoC


Thermal challenges in 3D-IC designs can cause a significant risk in meeting performance specifications. While the pace of Moore’s Law has slowed in recent years, system technology co-optimization (STCO) promises to mitigate technology scaling bottlenecks with system architecture tuning based on emerging technology offerings, including 3D technology. This white paper analyzes the impact of mat... » read more

Blog Review: Feb. 19


Cadence's Ravi Vora explains the AMBA Local Translation Interface protocol, which defines the point-to-point protocol between an I/O device and the Translation Buffer Unit of an Arm System Memory Management Unit. Siemens' Stephen V. Chavez provides a checklist for ensuring the quality and functionality of a PCB at every stage, from design through fabrication, assembly, and testing, with a fo... » read more

ADAS Adds Complexity To Automotive Sensor Fusion


Sensor fusion is becoming increasingly popular and more complex in automotive designs, integrating multiple types of sensors into a single chip or package and intelligently routing data to wherever it is needed. The primary goal is to bring together information from cameras, radar, lidar, and other sensors in order to provide a detailed view of what's happening inside and outside of a vehicl... » read more

Signal Integrity Plays Increasingly Critical Role In Chiplet Design


Maintaining the quality and reliability of electrical signals as they travel through interconnects is proving to be much more challenging with chiplets and advanced packaging than in monolithic SoCs and PCBs. Signal integrity is a fundamental requirement for all chips and systems, but it becomes more difficult with chiplets due to reflections, loss, crosstalk, process variation, and various ... » read more

Normalization Keeps AI Numbers In Check


AI training and inference are all about running data through models — typically to make some kind of decision. But the paths that the calculations take aren’t always straightforward, and as a model processes its inputs, those calculations may go astray. Normalization is a process that can keep data in bounds, improving both training and inference. Foregoing normalization can result in at... » read more

Symmetric Multiprocessing (SMP) RTOS On Xtensa Multicore


An increasing number of multi-threaded embedded applications want to leverage multicore designs. Symmetric Multiprocessing (SMP) RTOS provides automatic load balancing of multiple threads in a multicore environment. Also, numerous legacy multi-threaded embedded applications are deployed on a single-core RTOS that customers want to move to a multicore environment. For these reasons, application ... » read more

What Exactly Is Multi-Physics?


Multi-physics is the new buzzword in semiconductor design and analysis, but the fuzziness of the term is a reflection of just how many new and existing problems need to be addressed simultaneously in the design flow with advanced nodes and packaging. This disaggregation of planar SoCs and the inclusion of more processing elements, memories, interconnects, and passives inside a package has cr... » read more

Data Center Solutions: Reducing the Risk of Change


A panel of thermal and operational experts discuss the evolving challenges in the data center industry and the tools they’re using to overcome them. This eBook details the panel insights, which cover new applications, evolving thermal requirements, innovative cooling technology, and more. Download the eBook for a snapshot of how data center professionals are overcoming the current changes ... » read more

Chip Industry Technical Paper Roundup: Feb. 10


New technical papers recently added to Semiconductor Engineering’s library: [table id=405 /] Find all technical papers here. Also find more research and latest news here. » read more

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