Open ISAs Gaining Traction

By Ann Mutschler - 26 Sep, 2019 - Comments: 0

Open instruction set architectures are starting to gain a foothold, often in combination with other processors, as chipmakers begin to add more specialized compute elements and more flexibility into their designs. There are a number of these open ISAs available today, including Power, MIPS, and RISC-V, and there are a number of permutations and tools available for sale based on those archite... » read more

Memory Subsystems In Edge Inferencing Chips

By Ed Sperling - 23 Sep, 2019 - Comments: 0

Geoff Tate, CEO of Flex Logix, talks about key issues in a memory subsystem in an inferencing chip, how factors like heat can affect performance, and where these kinds of chips will be used. » read more

FPGA Design Tradeoffs Getting Tougher

By Ann Mutschler - 16 Sep, 2019 - Comments: 0

FPGAs are getting larger, more complex, and significantly harder to verify and debug. In the past, FPGAs were considered a relatively quick and simple way to get to market before committing to the cost and time of developing an ASIC. But today, both FPGAs and eFPGAs are being used in the most demanding applications, including cloud computing, AI, machine learning, and deep learning. In some ... » read more

Autonomous Vehicles Are Reshaping The Tech World

By Kevin Fogarty - 05 Sep, 2019 - Comments: 0

The effort to build cars that can drive themselves is reshaping the automotive industry and its supply chain, impacting everything from who defines safety to how to ensure quality and reliability. Automakers, which hardly knew the names of their silicon suppliers a couple of years ago, are now banding together in small groups to share the costs and solve technical challenges that are well be... » read more

eFPGA Macros Deliver Higher Speeds from Less Area/Resources

By Geoff Tate - 05 Sep, 2019 - Comments: 0

We work with a lot of customers designing eFPGA into their SoCs. Most of them have “random logic” RTL, but some customers have large numbers of complex, frequently used blocks. We have found in many cases that we can help the customer achieve higher throughput AND use less silicon area with Soft Macros. Let’s look at an example: 64x64 Multiply-Accumulate (MAC), below: If yo... » read more

AI Inference Memory System Tradeoffs

By Geoff Tate - 01 Aug, 2019 - Comments: 1

When companies describe their AI inference chip they typically give TOPS but don’t talk about their memory system, which is equally important. What is TOPS? It means Trillions or Tera Operations per Second. It is primarily a measure of the maximum achievable throughput but not a measure of actual throughput. Most operations are MACs (multiply/accumulates), so TOPS = (number of MAC units) x... » read more

Where Should Auto Sensor Data Be Processed?

By Ann Mutschler - 01 Aug, 2019 - Comments: 0

Fully autonomous vehicles are coming, but not as quickly as the initial hype would suggest because there is a long list of technological issues that still need to be resolved. One of the basic problems that still needs to be solved is how to process the tremendous amount of data coming from the variety of sensors in the vehicle, including cameras, radar, LiDAR and sonar. That data is the dig... » read more

AI/ML’s Role In ADAS

By Ann Mutschler - 01 Aug, 2019 - Comments: 0

Self-driving cars are headed this way, but not for a while. And that’s not a bad thing. As I discuss in my article, “Where Should Auto Sensor Data Be Processed?” there is still much to be worked out just on the technology side, such as how and where to process the significant amount of data coming into the vehicle from the outside world. [caption id="attachment_24152605" align="al... » read more

Inferencing Efficiency

By Ed Sperling - 11 Jul, 2019 - Comments: 0

Geoff Tate, CEO of Flex Logix, talks with Semiconductor Engineering about how to measure efficiency in inferencing chips, how to achieve the most throughput for the lowest cost, and what the benchmarks really show. » read more

Edge Complexity To Grow For 5G

By Kevin Fogarty and Ed Sperling - 02 Jul, 2019 - Comments: 0

Edge computing is becoming as critical to the success of 5G as millimeter-wave technology will be to the success of the edge. In fact, it increasingly looks as if neither will succeed without the other. 5G networks won’t be able to meet 3GPP’s 4-millisecond-latency rule without some layer to deliver the data, run the applications and broker the complexities of multi-tier Internet apps ac... » read more

← Older posts Newer posts →

Knowledge Centers
Entities, people and technologies explored

Shift Left Is The Tip Of The Iceberg

A transformative change is underway for semiconductor design and EDA. New languages, models, and abstractions will need to be created.

by Brian Bailey

Partitioning In The Chiplet Era

Understanding how chiplets interact under different workloads is critical to ensuring signal integrity and optimal performance in heterogeneous designs.

by Ann Mutschler

3.5D: The Great Compromise

Pros and cons of a middle-ground chiplet assembly that combines 2.5D and 3D-IC.

by Ed Sperling

AI’s Role In Chip Design Widens, Drawing In New Startups

Focus is on letting engineers do much more with the same or fewer resources — and less drudgery.

by Karen Heyman

Key Technologies To Extend EUV To 14 Angstroms

Alongside high-NA EUV will be better-performing photoresists, reduced roughness using passivation and etch, and lateral etching to reduce tip-to-tip dimensions.

by Laura Peters

What Comes After HBM For Chiplets

The standard for high-bandwidth memory limits design freedom at many levels, but that is required for interoperability. What freedoms can be taken from other functions to make chiplets possible?

by Brian Bailey

Memory Fundamentals For Engineers

eBook: Nearly everything you need to know about memory, including detailed explanations of the different types of memory; how and where these are used today; what's changing, which memories are successful and which ones might be in the future; and the limitations of each memory type.

by The SE Staff

Why Small Fab And Assembly Houses Are Thriving

Megafabs churning out the most advanced processors are not the only game in town.

by Bryon Moyer

tag: Flex Logix