Optimizing IC Designs For Real-World Use Cases


Semiconductor systems are becoming more focused on power, performance, and area for the primary scenarios they are likely to see in real-world applications, but increasingly at the expense of secondary tasks. This is happening at all levels of abstraction and all stages of the design flow. At the highest level, processors are being optimized to run a given set of software. RISC-V is one of t... » read more

Blog Review: Aug. 23


Siemens' Stephen Chavez discusses best practices when it comes to thermal analysis for PCB design, including component placement and close collaboration between mechanical and electrical engineering disciplines. Synopsys' Gary Ruggles, Richard Solomon, and Varun Agrawal introduce the Compute Express Link (CXL) specification and how it could help improve latency through computational offloadi... » read more

Blog Review: Aug. 16


Synopsys' Johannes Stahl and Tim Kogel suggest that multi-die systems require a new approach at the architecture planning phase and why chip designers can’t ignore physical effects such as layout, power, temperature, or IR-drop. Siemens' Rich Edelman argues for using the waveform window in a GUI rather than $display when debugging UVM. Cadence's Paul Scannell stresses the need for diver... » read more

Processor Tradeoffs For AI Workloads


AI is forcing fundamental shifts in chips used in data centers and in the tools used to design them, but it also is creating gaps between the speed at which that technology advances and the demands from customers. These shifts started gradually, but they have accelerated and multiplied over the past year with the rollout of ChatGPT and other large language models. There is suddenly much more... » read more

What Is An Integrated Circuit?


In our modern world, just about everything is woven together by electronics. From microwaves to satellites, electronics-powered devices are infused into our every waking moment. Today, even our sleep includes digital acoustics, haptics, and analytics. But while the systems that light, connect, and move our lives can vary greatly, nearly every electronic device has one or more of the same fundam... » read more

Blog Review: Aug. 9


Synopsys' John Swanson and Manmeet Walia note that designing for 224G Ethernet will entail some unique considerations, as design margins will be extremely tight, making it mission-critical to optimize individual analog blocks to reduce impairments. Cadence's Rick Sanborn finds that knowing how best to debug common partitioning-related issues and implicitly control them using common features ... » read more

Ansys Charge Plus And Its Particle-In-Cell Solver


SIMULATING SEMICONDUCTORS PARTICLE BY PARTICLE Plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PE-CVD) and plasma etching are experimental techniques that leverage multiphysics for product development in the semiconductor industry. PE-CVD explicitly tackles the deposition of material on the surface of a wafer, such as a thin coating. A chemical with free radicals is placed on the surface of the ... » read more

Chiplets: Deep Dive Into Designing, Manufacturing, And Testing


Chiplets are a disruptive technology. They change the way chips are designed, manufactured, tested, packaged, as well as the underlying business relationships and fundamentals. But they also open the door to vast new opportunities for existing chipmakers and startups to create highly customized components and systems for specific use cases and market segments. This LEGO-like approach sounds ... » read more

Managing Voltage Variation


Engineers make many tradeoffs when designing SoC’s to better meet design specifications. Power, Performance and Area (PPA) are the primary goals and all three impact the cost of the implementation. For example, higher power and performance can both require more expensive packaging for power and signal integrity as well as cooling. The larger the die area the fewer die per wafer which drives u... » read more

Blog Review: Aug. 2


Siemens' Katie Tormala points to the need for die attach thermal testing to ensure efficient removal of heat dissipation from power electronics components to prevent premature failure or thermal runaway. Synopsys's Dermott Lynch notes that over 30% of semiconductor failures are attributed to electrostatic discharge, with damage ranging from leakages and shorts to junction and metallization b... » read more

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