Power/Performance Bits: Oct. 15


Probabilistic computing Researchers at Purdue University and Tohoku University built a hardware demonstration of a probabilistic computer utilizing p-bits to perform quantum computer-like calculations. The team says probabilistic computing could bridge the gap between classical and quantum computing and more efficiently solve problems in areas such as drug research, encryption and cybersecurit... » read more

Pushing Memory Harder


In an optimized system, no component is waiting for another component while there is useful work to be done. Unfortunately, this is not the case with the processor/memory interface. Put simply, memory cannot keep up. Accessing memory is slow, and it can consume a significant fraction of the power budget. And the general consensus is this problem is not going away anytime soon, despite effort... » read more

Solving The Memory Bottleneck


Chipmakers are scrambling to solve the bottleneck between processor and memory, and they are turning out new designs based on different architectures at a rate no one would have anticipated even several months ago. At issue is how to boost performance in systems, particularly those at the edge, where huge amounts of data need to be processed locally or regionally. The traditional approach ha... » read more

Memory Subsystems In Edge Inferencing Chips


Geoff Tate, CEO of Flex Logix, talks about key issues in a memory subsystem in an inferencing chip, how factors like heat can affect performance, and where these kinds of chips will be used. » read more

Making Better Use Of Memory In AI


Steven Woo, Rambus fellow and distinguished inventor, talks about using number formats to extend memory bandwidth, what the impact can be on fractional precision, how modifications of precision can play into that without sacrificing accuracy, and what role stochastic rounding can play. » read more

Breaking Down The AI Memory Wall


Over the past few decades, the semiconductor industry has witnessed the rapid evolution of memory technology as new memories helped to usher in new usage models that characterized each decade. For example, synchronous memory helped drive the personal computer (PC) revolution in the 1990s, and this was quickly followed by specialized graphics memory (GPUs) for game consoles in the 2000s. When sm... » read more

Advantages Of LPDDR5: A New Clocking Scheme


Earlier this year, JEDEC released the new standard, JESD209–5, Low Power Double Data Rate 5 (LPDDR5). Those that contributed to the development of the standard come from a diverse technology background and represent both manufacturers and consumers of SDRAM memories. Now we have a new memory standard to help enable the future that requires more compute power, higher reliability, and lower pow... » read more

EDA Gears Up For 3D


Semiconductor Engineering sat down to discuss changes required throughout the ecosystem to support three-dimensional (3D) chip design with Norman Chang, chief technologist for the Semiconductor Business Unit of ANSYS; John Park, product management director for IC packaging and cross-platform solutions at Cadence; John Ferguson, director of marketing for DRC applications at Mentor, a Siemens Bus... » read more

Breaking The AI Memory Bottleneck


In the long unfolding arc of technology innovation, artificial intelligence (AI) looms as immense. In its quest to mimic human behavior, the technology touches energy, agriculture, manufacturing, logistics, healthcare, construction, transportation and nearly every other imaginable industry – a defining role that promises to fast track the fourth Industrial Revolution. And if the industry orac... » read more

Optimizing Power For Learning At The Edge


Learning on the edge is seen as one of the Holy Grails of machine learning, but today even the cloud is struggling to get computation done using reasonable amounts of power. Power is the great enabler—or limiter—of the technology, and the industry is beginning to respond. "Power is like an inverse pyramid problem," says Johannes Stahl, senior director of product marketing at Synopsys. "T... » read more

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