Radiation Hardening Chips For Outer Space


What’s the difference between radiation tolerant and radiation hardening, and where is each one used? Minal Sawant, director of the aerospace and defense vertical market at Xilinx, talks about different striations in the Earth’s atmosphere, how those various levels can affect radiation, and what impact that has on the functionality of increasingly dense chip circuits over extended periods o... » read more

Open Cavity Plastic Packaging


Rapid change in electronics is also causing rapid obsolescence. But in some markets, the systems are supposed to last for decades. Sam Sadri, senior process engineer at QP Technologies (formerly Quik-Pak), talks with Semiconductor Engineering about why it’s so important to use existing package footprints, what are the challenges in replacing the circuitry inside a package, and which markets a... » read more

Progress And Challenges On The CFD Vision 2030 Roadmap


After a long writing (and longer editing and approval seeking) process, the AIAA's CFD Vision 2030 Integration Committee has published its first update to the Vision's roadmap. This 71 page, thoroughly cited report assesses progress toward the Vision during 2020 and also provides a 5-year look-back. It covers the six domains along which the vision assesses progress in CFD: high performance comp... » read more

How To Build A Virtual Electromagnetic Test Environment For Aerospace And Automotive Platforms


To protect the electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) of complex systems like aircraft and automobiles, you need a full electromagnetic (EM) model. A virtual test environment allows you to assess a design and ensure system-level compatibility before physical testing. This process has been proven to save more than $1 million compared to an approach based solely on testing. Learn how to build a v... » read more

Big Changes In Verification


Verification is undergoing fundamental change as chips become increasingly complex, heterogeneous, and integrated into larger systems. Tools, methodologies, and the mindset of verification engineers themselves are all shifting to adapt to these new designs, although with so many moving pieces this isn't always so easy to comprehend. Ferreting out bugs in a design now requires a multi-faceted... » read more

Hyperscaling The 21st Century Engineer


While January is the month of predictions for many, I have made it a habit to look back and see how previous forward-looking assessments have worked out. It is fascinating to see how many past predictions were off and how little has changed in some areas. Twenty years ago, in January 2001, the front cover of IEEE Spectrum set the theme of ubiquitous connectivity in an always-on world. Some o... » read more

RT Kintex UltraScale FPGAs For Ultra High Throughput And High Bandwidth Applications


Xilinx's UltraScale architecture extends FPGA capability for space applications, delivering a step-function increase in I/O and memory bandwidth, capacity, performance, and in-orbit re-configurability. For the first time, the RT Kintex UltraScale XQRKU060 FPGA enables the satellite industry to access ultra-high throughput on-board processing of hundreds of Gb/s. This capability allows spacecraf... » read more

Dealing With Security Holes In Chips


Semiconductor Engineering sat down to discuss security risks across multiple market segments with Helena Handschuh, security technologies fellow at Rambus; Mike Borza, principal security technologist for the Solutions Group at Synopsys; Steve Carlson, director of aerospace and defense solutions at Cadence; Alric Althoff, senior hardware security engineer at Tortuga Logic; and Joe Kiniry, princi... » read more

The Advantages Of MBSE-Driven E/E Architecture


Vehicles in all sectors are growing in complexity as OEMs develop sophisticated platforms with growing levels of automation and connectivity. To cope with this growing complexity, automotive, aerospace and commercial vehicle OEMs must evolve their architectural design processes to leverage MBSE and the digital thread. Today’s E/E system engineering solutions help companies implement MBSE by p... » read more

More Multiply-Accumulate Operations Everywhere


Geoff Tate, CEO of Flex Logix, sat down with Semiconductor Engineering to talk about how to build programmable edge inferencing chips, embedded FPGAs, where the markets are developing for both, and how the picture will change over the next few years. SE: What do you have to think about when you're designing a programmable inferencing chip? Tate: With a traditional FPGA architecture you ha... » read more

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