Use Inference Benchmarks Similar To Your Application


If an Inference IP supplier or Inference Accelerator Chip supplier offers a benchmark, it is probably ResNet-50. As a result, it might seem logical to use ResNet-50 to compare inference offerings. If you plan to use ResNet-50 it would be; but if your target application model is significantly different from Resnet-50 it could lead you to pick an inference offering that is not best for you. ... » read more

Benchmarks For The Edge


Geoff Tate, CEO of Flex Logix, talks about benchmarking in edge devices, particularly for convolutional neural networks. https://youtu.be/-beVEpKAM4M » read more

EDA Grabs Bigger Slice Of Chip Market


EDA revenues have been a fairly constant percentage of semiconductor revenues, but that may change in 2019. With new customers creating demand, and some traditional customers shifting focus from advanced nodes, the various branches of the EDA tool industry may be where sticky technical problems are solved. IC manufacturing, packaging and development tools all are finding new ways to handle t... » read more

Week In Review: Design, Low Power


M&A Ansys will acquire Helic, a provider of electromagnetic crosstalk analysis and signoff tools. Founded in 2000, Helic's tools included pre- and post-LVS EM modeling, inductor synthesis and modeling, and analysis of crosstalk risk. The company's technology will be integrated into a solution for on-chip, 3D integrated circuit and chip-package-system electromagnetics and noise analysis. Th... » read more

Week in Review: IoT, Security, Auto


Internet of Things Tony Franklin, Intel’s general manager for Internet of Things Segments, is interviewed by Lorin Fries on how the chipmaker is helping to develop smart farming applications. “We focus primarily on high-performance computer technologies, as well as communication technologies, which have great applicability for food systems. We work closely with a broad ecosystem of partner... » read more

Mostly Upbeat Outlook For Chips


2019 has started with cautious optimism for the semiconductor industry, despite dark clouds that dot the horizon. Market segments such as cryptocurrencies and virtual reality are not living up to expectations, the market for smart phones appears to be saturated, and DRAM prices are dropping, leading to cut-backs in capital expenditures. EDA companies are talking about sales to China being pu... » read more

IoT Merging Into Data-Driven Design


The Internet of Things is becoming more difficult to define and utilize for an effective business strategy. While an increasing number devices send data to the cloud or some local server, so much data is being generated and moved around that new strategies are being developed to rethink what needs to be processed where. Back in 2013, when the IoT concept really began taking off, connectivity... » read more

Edge Inferencing Challenges


Geoff Tate, CEO of Flex Logix, talks about balancing different variables to improve performance and reduce power at the lowest cost possible in order to do inferencing in edge devices. https://youtu.be/1BTxwew--5U » read more

Overview of NMAX Neural Inferencing


At HotChips 2018, Microsoft presented the attached slide in their Brainwave presentation: the ideal is to achieve high hardware utilization at low batch size. Existing architectures don’t do this: they have high utilization only at high batch sizes which means high latency. NMAX’ architecture loads weights quickly achieving almost the same high utilization at batch=1 as at large batch sizes... » read more

Lies, Damn Lies, And TOPS/Watt


There are almost a dozen vendors promoting inferencing IP, but none of them gives even a ResNet-50 benchmark. The only information they state typically is TOPS (Tera-Operations/Second) and TOPS/Watt. These two indicators of performance and power efficiency are almost useless by themselves. So what, exactly, does X TOPS really tell you about performance for your application? When a vendor ... » read more

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