Reducing Costly Flaws In Heterogeneous Designs


The cost of defects is rising as chipmakers begin adding multiple chips into a package, or multiple processor cores and memories on the same die. Put simply, one bad wire can spoil an entire system. Two main issues need to be solved to reduce the number of defects. The first is identifying the actual defect, which becomes more difficult as chips grow larger and more complex, and whenever chi... » read more

More Data, More Processing, More Chips


Simon Segars, CEO of Arm, sat down with Semiconductor Engineering to talk about the impact of heterogeneous computing and new packaging approaches on IP, the need for more security, and how 5G and the edge will impact compute architectures and the chip industry. SE: There are a whole bunch of new markets opening up. How does Arm plan to tackle those? Segars: Luckily for us, we can design ... » read more

Week in Review – IoT, Security, Autos


Products/Services Cadence Design Systems is working with Adesto Technologies to grow the Expanded Serial Peripheral Interface (xSPI) communication protocol ecosystem, for use in Internet of Things devices. The Cadence Memory Model for xSPI allows customers to ensure optimal use of the octal NOR flash with the host processor in an xSPI system, including support for Adesto’s EcoXiP octal xSPI ... » 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

Using Multiple Inferencing Chips In Neural Networks


Geoff Tate, CEO of Flex Logix, talks about what happens when you add multiple chips in a neural network, what a neural network model looks like, and what happens when it’s designed correctly vs. incorrectly. » read more

Adjusting The Finish Line In Auto Electronics


There are two big hurdles in automotive electronics. One is developing autonomous vehicles, and the other is the electrification of those vehicles. In both cases, the development time may be a lot longer and more costly than anyone expected, and the impact may be much more far-reaching than the initial effort would suggest. For automakers, the key question in all of this is how they will dif... » read more

New Security Risks Create Need For Stealthy Chips


Semiconductors are becoming more vulnerable to attacks at each new process node due to thinner materials used to make these devices, as well as advances in equipment used to simulate how those chips behave. Thinner chips are now emitting light, electromagnetic radiation and various other types of noise, which can be observed using infrared and acoustic sensors. In addition, more powerful too... » read more

Advantages Of BFloat16 For AI Inference


Essentially all AI training is done with 32-bit floating point. But doing AI inference with 32-bit floating point is expensive, power-hungry and slow. And quantizing models for 8-bit-integer, which is very fast and lowest power, is a major investment of money, scarce resources and time. Now BFloat16 (BF16) offers an attractive balance for many users. BFloat16 offers essentially t... » read more

ML, Edge Drive IP To Outperform Broader Chip Market


The market for third-party semiconductor IP is surging, spurred by the need for more specific capabilities across a wide variety of markets. While the IP industry is not immune to steep market declines in semiconductor industry, it does have more built-in resilience than other parts of the industry. Case in point: The top 15 semiconductor suppliers were hit with an 18% decline in 2019 first-... » read more

Over $7 Billion Raised In Mega-Rounds By 27 Firms


It was also a good month for private equity firms and venture capitalists to raise their own rounds, with the money to be invested in early-stage companies and more mature ventures. A semiconductor company led the month. Nexperia, once the Standard Products business unit of NXP Semiconductors, took in $1.5 billion of senior credit facilities. The money will go toward refinancing debt and par... » read more

← Older posts Newer posts →