The Economics Of Moore’s Law


By Marc Heyns I’m very optimistic about the continuation of Moore’s Law. But in saying that, I’m speaking about Moore’s Law purely as an economic law. I believe we’ll be able to offer increasing amounts of functionality at lower and lower costs. And technological innovations as well as advances in design and application will be crucial in realizing this. But I don’t believe a ne... » read more

What Comes Next


By Marc Heyns I’m very optimistic about the continuation of Moore’s Law. But in saying that, I’m speaking about Moore’s Law purely as an economic law. I believe we’ll be able to offer increasing amounts of functionality at lower and lower costs. And technological innovations as well as advances in design and application will be crucial in realizing this. But I don’t believe a ... » read more

Making Cars Smarter


The fuel injection control unit has come a long way since 1983 when Ford Motor Co. first included a 16-bit Intel microcontroller-based fuel injection system in its 4-cylinder Escort. Today, some high end vehicles contain more than 100 microprocessors, which is mind boggling in comparison to that Escort that contained just one. To be sure, the automotive industry is a unique animal. Compared ... » read more

Tech Talk: Configurable Logic


Cliff Lloyd, business development director at NXP Semiconductors, talks about designing in one part for many functions to reduce power consumption and cost. [youtube vid=ut5kCm0kNwE] » read more

What Will 7nm And 5nm Look Like?


Citing an assortment of undisclosed manufacturing issues, Intel in July pushed out the introduction of its 10nm chip and process technology to the second half of 2017. This is roughly six or more months later than expected. With the delay at 10nm, [getentity id="22846" e_name="Intel"] also pushed out its process cadence from 2 to 2.5 years. Other foundries, meanwhile, are struggling to keep ... » read more

The Future Of Moore’s Law


Semiconductor Engineering sat down to discuss the future of Moore's Law with Jan Rabaey, Donald O. Pederson distinguished professor at [getentity id="22165" comment="UC Berkeley"]; Lucio Lanza, managing director of Lanza techVentures; Subramani Kengeri, vice president of advanced technology architecture at GlobalFoundries; Charlie Cheng, CEO of [getentity id="22135" e_name="Kilopass Technology"... » read more

Foundries Expand Planar Efforts


Competition is heating up in the leading-edge foundry business, as vendors begin to ramp up their new 16nm/14nm finFET processes. But that’s not the only action in the foundry arena. They are also expanding their efforts in the leading-edge planar market by rolling out new 28nm and 22nm processes. On one front, TSMC is offering new 28nm variants, based on bulk CMOS technology. And on an... » read more

How Hard Is FD-SOI Design?


Fully-depleted silicon-on-insulator ([getkc id="220" kc_name="FD-SOI"]) manufacturing technology reached of point of readiness for mass production at the end of March. Along with that, it’s now clear that while there are some impacts on the design flow, those impacts are not game changers. For one thing, the tools required are the same ones currently used for 28nm planar bulk CMOS. The onl... » read more

Drill Down: Embedded NVM Technology


Many of the next-generation devices that will be seen on the IoT/E will have power, footprint, and electronic constraints as never before. Electronic flash memories (eFLASH), and their derivatives are seen as a realistic solution to many of these design constraints for small form factor and simple IoE devices. “NVM will be very important for the IoE from the perspective of saving power," ... » read more

Issues And Options At 5nm


While the foundries are ramping up their processes for the 16nm/14nm node, vendors are also busy developing technologies for 10nm and beyond. In fact, chipmakers are finalizing their 10nm process offerings, but they are still weighing the technology options for 7nm. And if that isn’t enough, IC makers are beginning to look at the options at 5nm and beyond. Today, chipmakers can see a p... » read more

← Older posts Newer posts →