Machine Learning Showing Up As Silicon IP


New machine-learning (ML) architectures continue to appear. Up to now, each new offering has been implemented in a chip for sale, to be placed alongside host processors, memory, and other chips on an accelerator board. But over time, more of this technology could be sold as IP that can be integrated into a system-on-chip (SoC). That trend is evident at recent conferences, where an increasing... » read more

Preparing For Test Early In The Design Flow


Until very recently, semiconductor design, verification, and test were separate domains. Those domains have since begun to merge, driven by rising demand for reliability, shorter market windows, and increasingly complex chip architectures. In the past, products were designed from a functional perspective, and designers were not concerned about what the physical implementation of the product ... » read more

Data Center Architectures In Flux


Data center architectures are becoming increasingly customized and heterogeneous, shifting from processors made by a single vendor to a mix of processors and accelerators made by multiple vendors — including system companies' own design teams. Hyperscaler data centers have been migrating toward increasingly heterogeneous architectures for the past half decade or so, spurred by the rising c... » read more

Image Processing For Vision AI


Recent years have seen an increasing need for Vision AI applications using AI to enable real-time image recognition. Vision AI, which substitutes AI for human visual recognition, requires optimal image processing. Renesas has released RZ/V2M as mid-class, and RZ/V2L as an entry class, Vision AI microprocessors (MPUs). Both products are equipped with DRP-AI which is Dynamically Reconfigurable Pr... » read more

Technology Advances, Shortages Seen For Wire Bonders


A surge in demand for IC packages is causing long lead times for wire bonders, which are used to assemble three-fourths of the world’s packages. The wire bonder market doubled last year, alongside advanced packaging’s rise. Wirebonding is an older technology that typically flies under the radar. Still, packaging houses have multitudes of these key tools that help assemble many — but no... » read more

Improving PPA In Complex Designs With AI


The goal of chip design always has been to optimize power, performance, and area (PPA), but results can vary greatly even with the best tools and highly experienced engineering teams. Optimizing PPA involves a growing number of tradeoffs that can vary by application, by availability of IP and other components, as well as the familiarity of engineers with different tools and methodologies. Fo... » read more

Enhancing Datasets For Artificial Intelligence Through Model-Based Methods


By Dirk Mayer and Ulf Wetzker Industrial plants and processes are now digitized and networked, and AI can be used to evaluate the data generated by those facilities to increase productivity and quality. Machine learning (ML) methods can be applied to: Product quality classification in complex production processes. Condition monitoring of technical systems, which is used, for examp... » read more

AI Everywhere: Accelerating Chip Design At Every Node


Over the last few years, artificial Intelligence (AI) has increasingly played a significant role in the chip development process. But, when people talk about AI-designed chips, it is usually in the context of the latest, cutting-edge designs manufactured at advanced process nodes (7/5nm and smaller) and for good reason. Such designs constantly push the bounds of power, performance, and area (PP... » read more

ML Focus Shifting Toward Software


New machine-learning (ML) architectures continue to garner a huge amount of attention as the race continues to provide the most effective acceleration architectures for the cloud and the edge, but attention is starting to shift from the hardware to the software tools. The big question now is whether a software abstraction eventually will win out over hardware details in determining who the f... » read more

Ensuring Functional Safety For Automotive AI Processors


Safety is critically important across the automotive, industrial, and aerospace and defense industries. For instance, Cadence's work with Hailo illustrates how advances in semiconductor technology and EDA deliver safe electronics without compromising low power and cost. Hailo's automotive webpage starts with the words "The pursuit for 'vision zero,'" reflecting that European road fatalitie... » read more

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