Will AI Drive Scaling Forward?


The almost ubiquitous rollout of AI and its offshoots—machine learning, deep learning, neural nets of all types—will require significantly more processing power as the amount of data that needs to be processed continues to grow by orders of magnitude. What isn't clear yet is how that will affect semiconductor manufacturing or how quickly that might happen. AI is more than the latest buz... » read more

Fab Equipment Challenges For 2019


After a period of record growth, the semiconductor equipment industry is facing a slowdown in 2019, in addition to several technical challenges that still need to be resolved. Generally, the equipment industry saw enormous demand in 2017, and the momentum extended into the first part of 2018. But then the memory market began deteriorating in the middle of this year, causing both DRAM and NAND ... » read more

Security, Scaling and Power


If anyone has doubts about the slowdown and increasing irrelevance of Moore's Law, Intel's official unveiling of its advanced packaging strategy should leave little doubt. Inertia has ended and the roadmap is being rewritten. Intel's discussion of advanced packaging is nothing new. The company has been public about its intentions for years, and started dropping hints back when Pat Gelsinger ... » read more

Making Sure A Heterogeneous Design Will Work


An explosion of various types of processors and localized memories on a chip or in a package is making it much more difficult to verify and test these devices, and to sign off with confidence. In addition to timing and clock domain crossing issues, which are becoming much more difficult to deal with in complex chips, some of the new devices are including AI, machine learning or deep learning... » read more

Methodologies And Flows In A Rapidly Changing Market


A growing push toward more heterogeneity and customization in chip design is creating havoc across the global supply chain, which until a couple years ago was highly organized and extremely predictable. While existing tools still work well enough, no one has yet figured out the most efficient way to use them in a variety of new applications. Technology is still being developed in those marke... » read more

System Bits: Nov. 13


Deep learning device identifies airborne allergens To identify and measure airborne biological particles, or bioaerosols, that originate from living organisms such as plants or fungi, UCLA researchers have invented a portable device that uses holograms and machine learning. The device is trained to recognize five common allergens — pollen from Bermuda grass, oak, ragweed and spores from t... » read more

The Multiple Faces And Phases Of AI


AI is being used in more ways and more devices—and in more ways in those same devices—raising the level of confusion about exactly what people are talking about when they refer to AI and AI-enabled systems. AI is both a tool and a process. It also is a thing, although not even remotely close to the singularity portrayed by Arthur C. Clarke in 2001. And as it proliferates, it's becoming h... » read more

AI Begins To Reshape Chip Design


Artificial intelligence is beginning to impact semiconductor design as architects begin leveraging its capabilities to improve performance and reduce power, setting the stage for a number of foundational shifts in how chips are developed, manufactured and updated in the future. AI—and machine learning and deep learning subsets—can be used to greatly improve the functional control and pow... » read more

Always-on Face Unlock


Accurate face verification has long been considered a challenge due to the number of variables, ranging from lighting to pose and facial expression. This white paper looks at a new approach—combining classic and modern machine learning (deep learning) techniques—that achieves 98.36% accuracy, running efficiently on Arm ML-optimized platforms, and addressing key security issues such as mu... » read more

Machine Learning Invades IC Production


Semiconductor Engineering sat down to discuss artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, and chip and photomask manufacturing technologies with Aki Fujimura, chief executive of D2S; Jerry Chen, business and ecosystem development manager at Nvidia; Noriaki Nakayamada, senior technologist at NuFlare; and Mikael Wahlsten, director and product area manager at Mycronic. What follows are excerpt... » read more

← Older posts Newer posts →