HBM3: Big Impact On Chip Design


An insatiable demand for bandwidth in everything from high-performance computing to AI training, gaming, and automotive applications is fueling the development of the next generation of high-bandwidth memory. HBM3 will bring a 2X bump in bandwidth and capacity per stack, as well as some other benefits. What was once considered a "slow and wide" memory technology to reduce signal traffic dela... » read more

Microelectronics And The AI Revolution


It is no secret that artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML) are critical drivers for growth in electronics, and particularly, for semiconductors. The recent AI Hardware Summit showcased trends in AI/ML, both in enabling and using it in various application domains, including EDA. As part of the summit, Imec had organized a panel on “Advanced Microelectronics Technologies Driving ... » read more

Building Complex Chips That Last Longer


Semiconductor Engineering sat down to talk about design challenges in advanced packages and nodes with John Lee, vice president and general manager for semiconductors at Ansys; Shankar Krishnamoorthy, general manager of Synopsys' Design Group; Simon Burke, distinguished engineer at Xilinx; and Andrew Kahng, professor of CSE and ECE at UC San Diego. This discussion was held at the Ansys IDEAS co... » read more

Integrated Ethernet PCS And PHY IP For 400G/800G Hyperscale Data Centers


Ethernet has become the primary network protocol of choice for the required server-to-server communication in hyperscale data centers, as it allows hyperscalers to disaggregate network switches and install their software operating systems independently. Ethernet enables cost-effective, dense, open switches and networking technologies which reduce cost/power per bit with transistor scaling. Ethe... » read more

GDDR6 Memory On The Leading Edge


With the accelerating growth in data traffic, it is unsurprising that the number of hyperscale data centers keeps rocketing skyward. According to analysts at the Synergy Research Group, in nine months (Q2’20 to Q1’21), 84 new hyperscale data centers came online bringing the total worldwide to 625. Hyperscaler capex set a record $150B over the last four quarters eclipsing the $121B spent in ... » read more

Challenges For New AI Processor Architectures


Investment money is flooding into the development of new AI processors for the data center, but the problems here are unique, the results are unpredictable, and the competition has deep pockets and very sticky products. The biggest issue may be insufficient data about the end market. When designing a new AI processor, every design team has to answer one fundamental question — how much flex... » read more

Sweeping Changes Ahead For Systems Design


Data centers are undergoing a fundamental change, shifting from standard processing models to more data-centric approaches based upon customized hardware, less movement of data, and more pooling of resources. Driven by a flood of web searches, Bitcoin mining, video streaming, data centers are in a race to provide the most efficient and fastest processing possible. But because there are so ma... » read more

For The Edge, It’s All About Location, Location, Location


They are centrally located, are connected to power grids and water systems, and are rapidly thinning out. And you can probably get a new cell phone case or a corn dog in the atrium. Could shopping malls become a future home for the edge? Edge computing has transformed over the last few years from being a vaguely defined concept to a fundamental part of the future data infrastructure. Band... » read more

Hyperconnectivity’s Impact On Consumers


Do you know what hyperconnectivity is? It is already affecting you, whether you know it or not. Hyperscalers are the companies like AWS, Google, and Microsoft that build and run those enormous (aka hyperscale) data centers. If you are a designer and use the cloud, then you have at least a vague idea of what data centers are being used to handle your design. But even if you are the generic perso... » read more

CXL Signals A New Era Of Data Center Architecture


An exponential rise in data volume and traffic across the global internet infrastructure is motivating exploration of new architectures for the data center. Disaggregation and composability would move us beyond the classic architecture of the server as the unit of computing. By separating the functional components of compute, memory, storage and networking into pools, composed on-demand to matc... » read more

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