The Return Of DAC In-Person


Apart from masked faces everywhere, you could be excused for not knowing that there was a pandemic going on. Sure, the numbers were down, the show floor was smaller, and most of the parties didn't happen, but everyone was so happy to be able to bump elbows with their colleagues. Buttons were available for attendees to show the level of comfort they had with various types of greetings, from "... » read more

Week In Review: Manufacturing, Test


Chipmakers China’s Tsinghua Unigroup is in trouble. The group is the parent company of China’s YMTC, a 3D NAND supplier, and other chip ventures. It is close to moving into bankruptcy proceedings. Now, a consortium led by Alibaba has emerged as the frontrunner to take over Tsinghua Unigroup, according to a report from Bloomberg. That deal would keep the company afloat, the report said. ... » read more

Week In Review: Design, Low Power


Tools Imperas Software released updated simulator and reference models that support the latest RISC-V extensions for Bit Manipulation 1.0.0, Cryptographic (Scalar) 1.0.0, and Vector 1.0, plus Privilege Specification 1.12. They are offered both as freely available, open-source reference models for the RISC-V community as well as commercial products. Ansys' multiphysics signoff solutions were... » read more

Week In Review: Manufacturing, Test


Packaging Amkor plans to build a packaging plant in Bac Ninh, Vietnam. The first phase of the new factory will focus on providing system-in-package (SiP) assembly and test services for customers. The investment for the first phase of the facility is estimated to be between $200 million and $250 million. “This is a strategic, long-term investment in geographical diversification and factory... » read more

Week In Review: Design, Low Power


Business Synopsys acquired Concertio, a provider of AI-powered performance optimization software. The acquisition will bolster Synopsys' silicon lifecycle management platform SiliconMAX SLM with the addition of Concertio's autonomous software agent that, when installed on the target system, continuously monitors the interactions between operating applications and the underlying system enviro... » read more

Complex Chips Make Security More Difficult


Semiconductor supply chain management is becoming more complex with many more moving parts as chips become increasingly disaggregated, making it difficult to ensure where parts originated and whether they have been compromised before they are added into advanced chips or packages. In the past, supply chain concerns largely focused primarily on counterfeit parts or gray-market substitutions u... » read more

Progress On General-Purpose Quantum Computers


The race is on to scale up quantum computing, transforming it from an esoteric research tool into a commercially viable, general-purpose machine. Special-purpose quantum computers have been available for several years now. Systems like D-Wave’s Advantage focus on specific classes of problems that are amenable to modeling as quantum systems. Still, the ultimate goal of having a general purp... » read more

EDA Vendors Widen Use Of AI


EDA vendors are widening the use of AI and machine learning to incorporate multiple tools, providing continuity and access to consistent data at multiple points in the semiconductor design flow. While gaps remain, early results from a number of EDA tools providers point to significant improvements in performance, power, and time to market. AI/ML has been deployed for some time in EDA. Still,... » read more

System-In-Package Thrives In The Shadows


IC packaging continues to play a big role in the development of new electronic products, particularly with system-in-package (SiP), a successful approach that continues to gain momentum — but mostly under the radar because it adds a competitive edge. With a SiP, several chips and other components are integrated into a package, enabling it to function as an electronic system or sub-system. ... » read more

The Next Generation Of General-Purpose Compute At Hot Chips


At the recent HOT CHIPS, the first day opened with the chips that you first think of when you hear the word processor. These are the next generation of chips from the likes of Intel, AMD, and IBM. There were lots of other chips too, such as Arm's Neoverse N2, and NVIDIA's new data-processing unit (DPU), or AMD's next-generation graphics architecture. But for this post, anyway, I'm going to focu... » read more

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