More Options, Less Dark Silicon


Chipmakers are beginning to re-examine how much dark silicon should be used in a heterogenous system, where it works best, and what alternatives are available — a direct result of a slowdown in Moore's Law scaling and the increasing disaggregation of SoCs. The concept of dark silicon has been around for a couple decades, but it really began taking off with the introduction of the Internet ... » read more

Planning EDA’s Next Steps


Anirudh Devgan, Cadence's new CEO, and the recipient of the Phil Kaufman Award in December, sat down with Semiconductor Engineering to talk about what's next in EDA, the underlying technology and business challenges and changes, and new markets that are unfolding for floor-planning, verification, CFD, and advanced packaging. SE: Where does EDA need to improve? Devgan: We have made it much... » read more

Which Processor Is Best?


Intel's embrace of RISC-V represents a landmark shift in the processor world. It's a recognition that no single company can own the data center anymore, upending a revenue model that has persisted since the earliest days of computing. Intel gained traction in that market in the early 1990s with the explosion of commodity servers, but its role is changing as processors become more customized and... » read more

Improving PPA In Complex Designs With AI


The goal of chip design always has been to optimize power, performance, and area (PPA), but results can vary greatly even with the best tools and highly experienced engineering teams. Optimizing PPA involves a growing number of tradeoffs that can vary by application, by availability of IP and other components, as well as the familiarity of engineers with different tools and methodologies. Fo... » read more

Photomask Challenges At 3nm And Beyond


Experts at the Table: Semiconductor Engineering sat down to discuss optical and EUV photomasks issues, as well as the challenges facing the mask business, with Naoya Hayashi, research fellow at DNP; Peter Buck, director of MPC & mask defect management at Siemens Digital Industries Software; Bryan Kasprowicz, senior director of technical strategy at Hoya; and Aki Fujimura, CEO of D2S. What f... » read more

Domain-Specific Design Drives EDA Changes


The chip design ecosystem is beginning to pivot toward domain-specific architectures, setting off a scramble among tools vendors to simplify and optimize existing tools and methodologies. The move reflects a sharp slowdown in Moore's Law scaling as the best approach for improving performance and reducing power. In its place, chipmakers — which now includes systems companies — are pushing... » read more

More Than Moore At iMAPS


San Diego recently hosted the 54th International Symposium on Microelectronics. That's a very generic title, so you should know that it is run by iMAPS, the International Microelectronics Assembly and Packaging Society. Generally, the conference is just known as iMAPS. One of the keynotes was given by Cadence's KT Moore (in person). His presentation was titled "More Moore or More than Moore: a... » read more

What’s Next For Transistors And Chiplets


Sri Samavedam, senior vice president of CMOS Technologies at Imec, sat down with Semiconductor Engineering to talk about finFET scaling, gate-all-around transistors, interconnects, packaging, chiplets and 3D SoCs. What follows are excerpts of that discussion. SE: The semiconductor technology roadmap is moving in several different directions. We have traditional logic scaling, but packaging i... » read more

Data Tsunami Pushes Boundaries Of IC Interconnects


Rapid increases in machine-generated data are fueling demand for higher-performance multi-core computing, forcing design teams to rethink the movement of data on-chip, off-chip, and between chips in a package. In the past, this was largely handled by the on-chip interconnects, which often were a secondary consideration in the design. But with the rising volumes of data in markets ranging fro... » read more

Inside Intel’s Ambitious Roadmap


Ann Kelleher, senior vice president and general manager of Technology Development at Intel, sat down with Semiconductor Engineering to talk about the company’s new logic roadmap, as well as lithography, packaging, and process technology. What follows are excerpts of that discussion. SE: Intel recently disclosed its new logic roadmap. Beyond Intel 3, the company is working on Intel 20A. Wit... » read more

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