Managing Reflections With Terminations


Have you heard recommendations to use a particular termination in particular situations for good signal integrity? Have you ever wondered how to incorporate terminations in your design? While there are typical use cases for various terminations, sometimes engineers use termination techniques based on a recommendation or assumption that may not work, or at least may not be optimal, for their par... » read more

CXL Thriving As Memory Link


CXL is emerging from a jumble of interconnect standards as a predictable way to connect memory to various processing elements, as well as to share memory resources within a data center. Compute Express Link is built on a PCI Express foundation and supported by nearly all the major chip companies. It is used to link CPUs, GPUs, FPGAs, and other purpose-built accelerators using serial communic... » read more

Streamlining Complex Semiconductor Designs With IP-XACT-Based Structured Assembly


Semiconductor design is rapidly evolving because technologies such as AI and machine learning (ML) applications push the boundaries of complexity and specialization. Modern chips require hundreds or thousands of IP blocks, leading to significant design challenges. Multi-die architectures, which distribute functional blocks across multiple dice, demand expert planning to ensure connectivity and ... » read more

Why Are Automotive SoC Designers Turning To PCI Express 6.0?


Just over two decades ago, the introduction of PCI Express 1.0 marked the industry’s transition from then-ubiquitous parallel to serial interfaces. Back in 2002, the potential of “PCIe” in automotive applications was unforeseen – given the then-current state of in-vehicle computation and PCIe’s primary focus on desktop and data center use. Today, however, with the advent of connected ... » read more

Nascent Chiplet Tech Gaining Attention In Defense and Commercial Industries


The economic benefits derived from Moore's Law have changed, and not for the better. This shift – especially on the manufacturing side of system-on-chip (SoC) devices, has both the defense and commercial customers in the semiconductor industry wondering what will come next. One way to extend Moore's Law's cost, feature, and size benefits is with multi-chip technology, now commonly known as... » read more

AI Drives Need For Optical Interconnects In Data Centers


An explosion of data, driven by more sensors everywhere and the inclusion of AI/ML in just about everything, is ratcheting up the pressure on data centers to leverage optical interconnects to speed up data throughput and reduce latency. Optical communication has been in use for several decades, starting with long-haul communications, and evolving from there to connect external storage to ser... » read more

Is RISC-V Ready For Supercomputing?


RISC-V processors, which until several years ago were considered auxiliary processors for specific functions, appear to be garnering support for an entirely different type of role — high-performance computing. This is still at the discussion stage. Questions remain about the software ecosystem, or whether the chips, boards, and systems are reliable enough. And there are both business and t... » read more

Optimizing NoC-Based Designs


Semiconductor development is currently in a phase of rapid evolution driven by the combination of new technologies and methodologies. The technique of combining multiple functions into systems-on-chips (SoCs) is continuing to grow in complexity. Rapid advancement in new technologies for market segments like data centers, robotics, ADAS and artificial intelligence/machine learning (AI/ML) are re... » read more

Choosing The Right Server Interface Architectures For High Performance Computing


The largest bulk and cost of a modern high-performance computing (HPC) installation involves the acquisition or provisioning of many identical systems, interconnected by one or more networks, typically Ethernet and/or InfiniBand. Most HPC experts know that there are many choices between different server manufacturers and the options of form factor, CPU, RAM configuration, out of band management... » read more

UCIe: Marketing Ruins It Again


You may have seen the press release and articles recently about a new standard called UCIe. It stands for Universal Chiplet Interconnect Express. The standard is a great idea and will certainly help the market for chiplet-based designs to advance. But the name — Argggh. More on that later. First, let's talk about what it is. You may notice the name looks similar to PCIe (Peripheral Compone... » read more

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