How Inferencing Differs From Training in Machine Learning Applications


Machine learning (ML)-based approaches to system development employ a fundamentally different style of programming than historically used in computer science. This approach uses example data to train a model to enable the machine to learn how to perform a task. ML training is highly iterative with each new piece of training data generating trillions of operations. The iterative nature of the tr... » read more

Weight Adjustable Photonic Synapse by Nonlinear Gain in a Vertical Cavity Semiconductor Optical Amplifier


Abstract: "In this paper, we report a high-speed and tunable photonic synaptic element based on a vertical cavity semiconductor optical amplifier (VCSOA) operating with short (150 ps-long) and low-energy (μW peak power) light pulses. By exploiting nonlinear gain properties of VCSOAs when subject to external optical injection, our system permits full weight tunability of sub-ns input light p... » read more

Can Coherent Optics Reduce Data-Center Power?


As optical bandwidth requirements increase, system designers are turning to “coherent” modulation schemes that can place more data on the same laser light, and lower power over long connections. A newer question is whether those savings could be achieved for short connections within data centers, as well. “Coherent is the direction everything's moving, because for a given system and... » read more

Using Manufacturing Data To Boost Reliability


As chipmakers turn to increasingly customized and complex heterogeneous designs to boost performance per watt, they also are demanding lower defectivity and higher yields to help offset the rising design and manufacturing costs. Solving those issues is a mammoth multi-vendor effort. There can be hundreds of process steps in fabs and packaging houses. And as feature sizes continue to shrink, ... » read more

Improving Energy And Power Efficiency In The Data Center


Energy costs in data centers are soaring as the amount of data being generated explodes, and it's being made worse by an imbalance between increasingly dense processing elements that are producing more heat and uneven server utilization, which requires more machines to be powered up and cooled. The challenge is to maximize utilization without sacrificing performance, and in the past that has... » read more

Towards Decarbonization: Keeping Electronics Energy Consumption In Check


The International Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors (ITRS) roadmap famously said in 2001 that "cost of design is the greatest threat to the continuation of the semiconductor roadmap." For years, the industry followed the ITRS updates on productivity improvements provided by automating design and hardware to counteract the looming design cost. The discussion on decarbonization has some simil... » read more

1.6 Tb/s Ethernet Challenges


Moving data at blazing fast speeds sounds good in theory, but it raises a number of design challenges. John Swanson, senior product marketing manager for high-performance computing digital IP at Synopsys, talks about the impact of next-generation Ethernet on switches, the types of data that need to be considered, the causes of data growth, and the size and structure of data centers, both in the... » read more

Changing Server Architectures In The Data Center


Data centers are undergoing a fundamental shift to boost server utilization and improve efficiency, optimizing architectures so available compute resources can be leveraged wherever they are needed. Traditionally, data centers were built with racks of servers, each server providing computing, memory, interconnect, and possibly acceleration resources. But when a server is selected, some of th... » read more

Energy-Efficient SoCs For The Zettabyte Era Using Power-Saving IP And System Design Techniques


As the modern world becomes increasingly connected, businesses and consumers alike are relying more and more on digital data. Behind the scenes, data centers that manage all of this digital data are a somewhat silent, yet impactful, part of this connectivity revolution. These data centers are lined with servers that process digital data for everything from social media status updates to analyti... » read more

Six Things We Might Need For Pervasive Computing


There is little doubt that digital technology will become more pervasive than it is even now in the coming decades. Organizations like the Exponential Group argue that digital should be the first step in sustainability, estimating that hardware and software could help reduce emissions by 15% by 2030 and beyond by helping fine-tune buildings, factories, and other environments. Cars—already ... » read more

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