The Week In Review: Design


M&A Microchip inked an agreement to acquire Microsemi, provider of chips for defense and aerospace, for $68.78 per share in cash. The acquisition price represents a total equity value of about $8.35 billion and a total enterprise value of about $10.15 billion, according to Microchip. The deal is expected to close in the second quarter of 2018. Silvaco acquired NanGate. Founded in 2004, ... » read more

Exponentials At The Edge


The age of portable communication has set off a scramble for devices that can achieve almost anything a desktop computer could handle even five years ago. But this is just the beginning. The big breakthrough with mobile devices was the ability to combine voice calls, text and eventually e-mail, providing the rudiments of a mobile office-all on a single charge of a battery that was light enou... » read more

How AI Impacts Memory Systems


Throughout the 1980’s and early 1990’s computer systems were bottlenecked by relatively slow CPU performance, thereby limiting what applications could do. Driven by Moore’s Law, transistor counts increased significantly over the years, improving system performance and enabling exciting new computing possibilities. Although computing capabilities have advanced significantly in recen... » read more

Intelligence At The Edge Is Transforming Our World


Innovation comes in all forms in technology, from software and hardware to displays all the way to the human-machine interface. As devices and systems become more intelligent, the onus on humans to learn the machine’s ways is shifting. Until now, interaction with smart devices has largely relied on our ability to manipulate the machines; to learn their language to input and extract the inform... » read more

Investors Back IoT Startups


Internet of Things startups took in more than $1.35 billion from corporate and private investors during the latter half of 2017, for a total of about $2.2 billion in the full year. Chicago-based Uptake Technologies, an Industrial IoT startup, had the biggest haul of the year, with $117 million raised in a Series D round, on top of a $90 million Series C round earlier in 2017, bringing its to... » read more

Blog Review: Mar. 7


Synopsys' Amit Paunikar and Shaily Khare take a look at new features in LPDDR5, from improved data bandwidth and Deep Sleep Mode to WCK clock. Cadence's Paul McLellan dives into forward error correction, a technique for automatically correcting errors in transmitted network data, with a look at why it's important and how it works. In his latest embedded software video, Mentor's Colin Wall... » read more

Is Advanced Packaging The Next SoC?


Device scaling appears to be possible down to 1.2nm, and maybe even beyond that. What isn't obvious is when scaling will reach that node, how many companies will actually use it, or even what chips will look like when foundries actually start turning out these devices using multi-patterning with high-NA EUV and dielectrics with single-digit numbers of atoms. There are two big changes playing... » read more

Better Living Through Microelectronics


The recently completed 2018 Winter Olympic Games left many of us in awe of the athleticism on display. But this month’s 2018 Winter Paralympic Games, also being held in PyeongChang, South Korea, could be an even more impressive showcase of both skills and heart. Competitors from around the world will include athletes with a range of physical, intellectual and visual disabilities. Of course, t... » read more

The Week in Review: IoT


Finance CyberX raised $18 million in Series B funding, bringing its total funding to $30 million. Norwest Venture Partners led the new round and was joined by ff Venture Capital, Flint Capital, Glilot Capital Partners, and OurCrowd. CyberX makes its headquarters in Framingham, Mass., with operations in Israel. The startup offers security protection for Industrial Internet of Things application... » read more

Systems Bits: Feb. 27


Prepare to prevent malicious AI use According to the University of Cambridge, 26 experts on the security implications of emerging technologies have jointly authored a ground-breaking report thereby sounding the alarm about the potential malicious use of artificial intelligence (AI) by rogue states, criminals, and terrorists. The report forecasts rapid growth in cyber-crime and the misuse of... » read more

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