AI Drives More Realistic Gaming


Video games are utilizing artificial intelligence to create increasingly realistic scenarios and interactions, enabled by big increases in processing horsepower and memory, and significantly faster data movement. GPUs, once confined to graphics rendering, are now also being deployed across a wide range of AI tasks, generating more realistic non-player characters, dynamic worlds, personalized... » read more

Agentic AI: Lots Of Little Black Boxes


AI is changing so quickly that it's not always clear how much of a security threat it poses for semiconductor design, and that uncertainty increases as AI agents are introduced into the mix. So far, the use of AI in chip design has been highly targeted. Most of what is included in design tools is some version of machine learning, bounded by tight control loops. EDA and IP vendors, large chip... » read more

SDVs And AI Forcing Big Changes In Automotive


The automotive industry is undergoing a fundamental transformation that includes everything from software-defined vehicles, the injection of AI into nearly every facet of the design and use case of a vehicle, and a complete overhaul of traditional relationships between different tiers and OEMs. The switch to software-defined vehicles is a top priority for the automotive ecosystem. It enables... » read more

Enabling the Highest Levels of SoC Security


Whether you are developing system-on-chips (SoCs) for mobile and wearables, automotive, artificial intelligence (AI), or entertainment, securing your proprietary data and your customers’ information is critical to your company’s long-term success. Hackers can exploit vulnerabilities in any part of those systems, at the network, device, or chip levels. Protecting your systems starts with hav... » read more

Security Tradeoffs: A Difficult Balance


Experts At The Table: Semiconductor Engineering sat down to discuss hardware security challenges, including new threat models from AI-based attacks, with Nicole Fern, principal security analyst at Keysight; Serge Leef, AI-For-Silicon strategist at Microsoft; Scott Best, senior director for silicon security products at Rambus; Lee Harrison, director of Tessent Automotive IC Solutions at Sieme... » read more

Blog Review: Aug. 6


Cadence's Shyam Sharma checks out key features of the LPDDR6 specification, including data transfer speeds that can reach up to 14.4Gbps, two sub-channels per device, metadata built into the data packets, and row hammer mitigation. Synopsys' Frank Malloy and Vincent van der Leest describe the essential role that a hardware root of trust plays in providing a secure foundation for all other se... » read more

Can Cheaper Lasers Handle Short Distances?


Optical technology is well established for long-haul communications, but the distances it serves are shrinking — especially in the data center. Vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs) already drive short fiber links. But efforts are underway to further scale them down to provide more connections through waveguides than fiber can provide. “We have seen the transition from long... » read more

Chip Industry Week in Review


The U.S. government announced new import tariff actions and deals this week, including: The EU: 15% tariff on most goods including semiconductors. According to the EU's president, the action excludes semiconductor equipment. Copper: 50% tariff on all imports of semi-finished copper products and intensive copper derivative products, effective Aug. 1, but raw input material is excluded. ... » read more

For Chip Developers, HW/SW Co-Design Key To Data Center Efficiency


Data centers and high-performance computing (HPC) are the primary enablers of today’s power-hungry AI-driven technology, but chip designers, EDA vendors, and the data centers themselves have a long list of options available to them to help curb AI's power consumption. Chip designers play a critical role in ensuring energy efficient processing from the bottom up, whether that is hardware-so... » read more

STA Strategies For Fast And Efficient Signoff Performance For Multi-Billion Instance Designs


Contemporary AI, high-performance computing (HPC), mobile, and automotive designs continue to grow in size and complexity, putting a strain on the high-capacity compute required for static timing analysis (STA) workloads. Designs continue to grow at an unprecedented rate in size and complexity, outpacing the capacity of existing high-performance compute servers. A modern STA solution that can h... » read more

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