In Case You Missed It


We recently held two very successful seminars in Tokyo and Shanghai. Samsung Memory presented their HBM2 solutions, Samsung Foundry talked about their advanced 14nm FinFET solutions, ASE Group reviewed their advanced 2.5D packaging solutions, eSilicon presented our ASIC and 2.5D design/implementation and IP solutions, Rambus detailed their high-performance SerDes solutions and Northwest Logic p... » read more

eSilicon Builds ASIC Business On Leading-Edge Chip Design


This paper explores how advanced application specific integrated circuits (ASIC) chip design and manufacturing for leading-edge applications such as networking and artificial intelligence can be successfully outsourced. The company we profile is eSilicon, which has capabilities in 2.5D packaging, high-bandwidth memories (HBM), and silicon IP for fast memories and SerDes designs. The company ha... » read more

Getting Serious About Chiplets


Demand for increasingly complex computation, more features, lower power, and shorter lifecycles are prompting chipmakers to examine how standardized hard IP can be used to quickly assemble systems for specific applications. The idea of using chiplets, with or without a package, has been circulating for at least a half-dozen years, and they can trace their origin back to IBM's packaging schem... » read more

What’s Next?


We just concluded two very successful seminars in Tokyo and Shanghai. Samsung Memory presented their HBM2 solutions, Samsung Foundry talked about their advanced 14nm FinFET solutions, ASE Group reviewed their advanced 2.5D packaging solutions, eSilicon presented our ASIC and 2.5D design/implementation and IP solutions, Rambus detailed their high-performance SerDes solutions and Northwest Logic ... » read more

Mixing Interface Protocols


Continuous and pervasive connectivity requires devices to support multiple interface protocols, but that is creating problems at multiple levels because each protocol is based on a different set of assumptions. This is becoming significantly harder as systems become more heterogeneous and as more functions are crammed into those devices. There are more protocols that need to be supported to ... » read more

The Trouble With Models


Models are becoming more difficult to develop, integrate and utilize effectively at 10/7nm and beyond as design complexity, process variation and physical effects add to the number of variables that need to be taken into account. Modeling is a way of abstracting the complexity in various parts of the semiconductor design, and there can be dozens of models required for complex SoCs. Some are ... » read more

The Week In Review: Design


M&A Design services firm Synapse Design acquired the assets of ACEIC Design Technologies, including the engineering team and verification IP. ACEIC, which was based in Bangalore, primarily focused on verification services for wireless 802.11ac MAC IP. This is only the latest expansion move from Synapse. Earlier this year, the company acquired the services companies Tech Vulcan in San Diego... » read more

Big Challenges, Changes For Debug


By Ann Steffora Mutschler & Ed Sperling Debugging a chip always has been difficult, but the problem is getting worse at 7nm and 5nm. The number of corner cases is exploding as complexity rises, and some bugs are not even on anyone's radar until well after devices are already in use by end customers. An estimated 39% of verification engineering time is spent on debugging activities the... » read more

The Week In Review: Design


Tools Imperas debuted its RISC-V Processor Developer Suite, a set of models, a software simulator, and tools to validate, verify, and provide early estimation of timing performance and power consumption for RISC-V processors. IP Minima Processor revealed its dynamic-margining subsystem IP for near-threshold voltage design. The startup's hardware and software IP works with a CPU or DSP proc... » read more

Advanced ASICs: It Takes An Ecosystem


I remember the days of the IDM (integrated device manufacturer). For me, it was RCA, where I worked for 15 years as the company changed from RCA to GE and then ultimately to Harris Semiconductor. It’s a bit of a cliché, but life was simpler then, from a customer point of view at least. RCA did it all. We designed all the IP, did the physical design, owned fabs, assembly and test facilities a... » read more

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