Looking For The Next Big Thing

By Brian Bailey - 21 Aug, 2014 - Comments: 0

With [getkc id="74" comment="Moore's Law"] slowing down or coming to an end, finding the next big thing may be very different than it was in the past. We cannot assume that more of the same will be a winner. The semiconductor industry has been blessed with two new product categories that have catapulted it through what should have been a very difficult period with barely a scratch. Those techno... » read more

IP Subsystems: What Works, What Doesn’t

By Ann Mutschler - 21 Aug, 2014 - Comments: 0

The [getkc id="81" kc_name="SoC"] landscape has changed substantially over the past decade and so have some of the definitions for aspects of the system—particularly the [getkc id="43" kc_name="IP"] subsystem. “We’ve been at the point for some time for large SoCs that what we thought about as a building block 10 years ago is now too small,” said [getperson id="11489" p_name="Drew Win... » read more

Different Approaches Emerge For Stacking Die

By Ed Sperling - 21 Aug, 2014 - Comments: 1

The concept of stacking die to shorten wires, improve performance, and reduce the amount of energy required to drive signals has been in research for at least the past dozen years at both IBM and Intel. And depending upon whom you ask, it could be another 2 to 10 years before it becomes a mainstream packaging approach—if it happens at all. At least part of the confusion stems from how you ... » read more

NoC Technology: Saving the Planet, One Chip at a Time

By Kurt Shuler - 21 Aug, 2014 - Comments: 0

In Silicon Valley, the cliché is that we are using technology to change the world in some meaningful way. However, I made some calculations recently and I found network-on-chip technology is actually contributing to efforts to reduce carbon emissions. SoC designers have become the ultimate energy misers as they strive to make tradeoffs between extending battery life and providing game-chang... » read more

When Will 2.5D Cut Costs?

By Brian Bailey - 07 Aug, 2014 - Comments: 2

There is a constant drive to reduce costs within the semiconductor industry and, up until now, [getkc id="74" comment="Moore's Law"] provided an easy path to enable this. By adopting each smaller node, transistors were cheaper, but that is no longer the case, as explained in a recent article. The industry will need to find new technologies to make this happen and some people are looking towards... » read more

Blog Review: July 30

By Ed Sperling - 30 Jul, 2014 - Comments: 0

Mentor’s Colin Walls looks at a free collaborative online tool called codepad, which can be used for compiling, interpreting and executing code quickly. Free is good—sometimes. Cadence’s Brian Fuller followed a recent panel on high-speed, cross-fabric interface design, which focused on why designers need to consider chip, package and board to ensure signal and power integrity. So what... » read more

Apple CarPlay Vs. Android Auto

By Kurt Shuler - 25 Jul, 2014 - Comments: 1

The smartphone wars have been fought and won (well, at least for now), but now there’s a new electronics battle brewing in your garage, rather than your pocket. The talk of smartphone SoC technology proliferating from phones and into cars has finally transformed into action, and major electronics companies are striking deals with established automobile manufacturers to integrate the benefi... » read more

IP Integration Challenges Rising

By Ann Mutschler - 24 Jul, 2014 - Comments: 0

It’s not just [getkc id="80" comment="lithography"] that is putting a crimp in sub-28nm designs. As more functions, features, transistors and software are added onto chips, the pressure to get chips out the door has forced chipmakers to lean more heavily on third-party IP providers. Results, as you might expect, have been mixed. The number of blocks has mushroomed, creating its own web of ... » read more

EDA’s Hedge Plays

By Ed Sperling - 24 Jul, 2014 - Comments: 0

While 14/16nm process technologies with finFETs and double patterning have pushed complexity to new heights, the move to 10nm fundamentally will change a number of very basic elements of the design through manufacturing flow—and EDA vendors will be caught in the middle of having to make hard choices between foundries, processes, packaging approaches, and potentially which markets to serve. ... » read more

New Winners And Losers

By Brian Bailey - 24 Jul, 2014 - Comments: 0

During DAC 2013, Robert Colwell of DARPA said he was attempting to prepare the U.S. Dept. of Defense for what he believes is the cataclysm caused by the end of [getkc id="74" comment="Moore's Law"]. He asked the question, “What happens when we don’t have a new technology that doubles the number of transistors every couple of years?” Colwell believes that power is the primary reason why... » read more

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Knowledge Centers
Entities, people and technologies explored

Shift Left Is The Tip Of The Iceberg

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