AI Signals A New Change Of Perspective


A very long time ago, I was a student at MIT, programming with card decks in APL on IBM mainframes and studying AI in a class from Patrick Winston (who took over MIT’s AI lab from the legendary Marvin Minsky). I kept the text book as a reminder of where the world would go. Over four titanic shifts, mainframes/card decks became VAX/VT100, thence to IBM PCs and PC clients tied by Ethernet to co... » read more

Scaling Up Vision And AI DSP Performance


Imagine these futuristic scenarios: you hold your phone up to your face, and it automatically recognizes you and unlocks, so you can access content. A sensor at your front door recognizes that you are not an intruder, no matter what the wind has done to your hair or whether your face is obscured by a scarf. How about an autonomous car that recognizes your driving style, so not only can you turn... » read more

High-Performance Memory Challenges


Designing memories for high-performance applications is becoming far more complex at 7/5nm. There are more factors to consider, more bottlenecks to contend with, and more tradeoffs required to solve them. One of the biggest challenges is the sheer volume of data that needs to be processed for AI, machine learning or deep learning, or even in classic data center server racks. “The design... » read more

Ultra-Low Power Memory IPs Using Mentor coolSRAM-6T Technology


The use of embedded static random access memory (eSRAM) in complex ICs has significantly increased in the past three decades. This trend will continue with the growth of ICs designed for rapidly expanding markets such as automotive, virtual reality (VR) / augmented reality (AR), implantable medical devices, gaming, sensor hub, medical devices, wearable computing, data center, and artificial int... » read more

Choosing The Right Interconnect


Efforts to zero in on cheaper advanced packaging approaches that can speed time to market are being sidetracked by a dizzying number of choices. At the center of this frenzy of activity is the [getkc id="36" kc_name="interconnect"]. Current options range from organic, silicon and glass interposers, to bridges that span different die at multiple levels. There also are various fan-out approach... » read more

The Week in Review: IoT


Investment Microsoft this week said it will spend $5 billion over four years on Internet of Things programs in research, development, and partner enablement. The company previously spent $1.5 billion on developing IoT technology. The move could pay dividends for the Microsoft Azure cloud platform and lead to wider use of Azure Stack, which pairs Microsoft software with hardware from approved p... » read more

Artificial, With Questionable Intelligence


A common theme is emerging in the race to develop big machines that can navigate through a world filled with people, animals, and other assorted objects—if an accident is inevitable, what options are available to machines and how should they decide?   This question was raised at a number of semiconductor industry conferences over the past few weeks, which is interesting because this idea h... » read more

The Ideal Solution For AI Applications — Speedcore eFPGAs


AI requires a careful balance of datapath performance, memory latency, and throughput that requires an approach based on pulling as much of the functionality as possible into an ASIC or SoC. But that single-chip device needs plasticity to be able to handle the changes in structure that are inevitable in machine-learning projects. Adding eFPGA technology provides the mixture of flexibility and s... » read more

The Week in Review: IoT


Regulation The Consumer Product Safety Commission is accepting public comments on “potential safety issues and hazards associated with Internet-connected consumer products.” The agency is concerned about “unexpected operating conditions” with Internet of Things devices, along with hacking that could start fires through a stovetop or grill, and the potential compromising of home safety ... » read more

System Bits: March 27


New quantum electronic material has atomic structure resembling a Japanese basketweaving pattern According to MIT, Harvard University, and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory researchers, a motif of Japanese basketweaving known as the kagome pattern has preoccupied physicists for decades. They reminded that kagome baskets are typically made from strips of bamboo woven into a highly symmetric... » read more

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