Fabless IDMs Redefine The Leading Edge


Large systems companies are looking more like integrated device manufacturers, designing their own advanced chips, packages, and systems for internal use. But because these are not pure-play chip companies, they are disrupting a 10-year cadence of customization and standardization that has defined the chip industry from its inception, and extending the period of innovation without the associate... » read more

Blog Review: Oct. 26


Synopsys' Teng-Kiat Lee and Sandeep Mehndiratta argue that IC design in the cloud can support an existing on-prem strategy, enable large and small enterprises to manage cost and capacity more effectively, and offer security for valuable semiconductor IP. Siemens EDA's Chris Spear finds that SystemVerilog classes are a good way to encapsulate both variables and the routines that operates on t... » read more

Week In Review: Auto, Security, Pervasive Computing


Automotive, mobility The BMW Group will invest $1.7 billion in its U.S. operations to build electric vehicles and batteries, mostly in South Carolina. BMW will drop $1 billion in its South Carolina plant for EV production and $700 million for a new battery-assembly facility in the state. BMW also agreed to purchase battery cells from Japan-based Envision AESC, which plans to construct a new ba... » read more

SiPs: The Best Things in Small Packages


System-in-package (SiP) is quickly emerging as the package option of choice for a growing number of applications and markets, setting off a frenzy of activity around new materials, methodologies, and processes. SiP is an essential packaging platform that integrates multiple functionalities onto a single substrate, which enables lower system cost, design flexibility, and superior electrical p... » read more

Bespoke Silicon Rattles Chip Design Ecosystem


Bespoke silicon developers are shaking up relationships, priorities, and methodologies across the semiconductor industry, creating demand for skills that cross traditional boundaries, and driving new business models that leverage these enormous investments. Bespoke silicon designers today are a rare breed, capable of understanding the unique requirements of a specific domain, as well as a gr... » read more

Blog Review: Oct. 19


Siemens EDA's Harry Foster examines trends related to various aspects of FPGA design and the growing design complexity associated with increasing number of embedded processor cores, asynchronous clock domains, and more safety features. Synopsys' Twan Korthorst and Kenneth Larsen take a broad look at silicon photonics, including the benefits of electronic integration, accelerating the develop... » read more

Week In Review: Design, Low Power


Cadence unveiled a new environment to automate and accelerate the complete design closure cycle from signoff optimization through routing, static timing analysis (STA), and extraction. The Certus Closure Solution allows concurrent, full-chip optimization through a massively parallel and distributed architecture and engine shared with Cadence’s Innovus Implementation System and the Tempus Timi... » read more

Designing A Better Clock Network


Laying the proper clock network architecture foundation makes all the difference for the best performance, power, and timing of a chip, particularly in advanced node SoCs packed with billions of transistors. Each transistor, which acts like a standard cell, needs a clock. An efficient clock network should ensure the switching transistors save power. In today’s advanced nodes, when a design... » read more

Dealing With Heat In Near-Memory Compute Architectures


The explosion in data forcing chipmakers to get much more granular about where logic and memory are placed on a die, how data is partitioned and prioritized to utilize those resources, and what the thermal impact will be if they are moved closer together on a die or in a package. For more than a decade, the industry has faced a basic problem — moving data can be more resource-intensive tha... » read more

Beyond Autonomous Cars


As the automotive industry takes a more measured approach to self-driving cars and long-haul trucks for safety and security reasons, there is a renewed focus on other types of vehicles utilizing autonomous technology. The list is long and growing. It now includes autonomous trains, helicopters, tractors, ships, submarines, drones, delivery robots, motorcycles, scooters, and bikes, all of whi... » read more

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