The Great Quantum Computing Race


Quantum computing is heating up, as a growing number of entities race to benchmark, stabilize, and ultimately commercialize this technology. As of July 2021, a group from China appears to have taken the lead in terms of raw performance, but Google, IBM, Intel and other quantum computer developers aren’t far behind. All of that could change overnight, though. At this point, it's too early t... » read more

Behind The Intel-GlobalFoundries Rumor


A Wall Street Journal report that Intel is looking to buy GlobalFoundries has sparked discussions across the industry. But what exactly this would mean, and why now versus a couple years ago, needs some context. There are layers upon layers of irony behind this would-be deal, and it dates back decades to some rather famous encounters. Consider former AMD CEO Jerry Sanders' 1991 comment that ... » read more

Week In Review: Auto, Security, Pervasive Computing


Security A new security annotation standard for hardware IP is now available for download at no cost. The board of directors of the Accellera Systems Initiative, the non-profit EDA- and IP-standards organization, approved the release of the Security Annotation for Electronic Design Integration (SA-EDI) Standard 1.0. The standard, developed by Accellera’s IP Security Assurance (IPSA) Working ... » read more

RaPiD: AI Accelerator for Ultra-low Precision Training and Inference


Abstract—"The growing prevalence and computational demands of Artificial Intelligence (AI) workloads has led to widespread use of hardware accelerators in their execution. Scaling the performance of AI accelerators across generations is pivotal to their success in commercial deployments. The intrinsic error-resilient nature of AI workloads present a unique opportunity for performance/energy i... » read more

Week In Review: Manufacturing, Test


Chipmakers and OEMs More delays and product woes at Intel. “INTC disclosed that it is delaying the launch of its next-generation Xeon server processor Sapphire Rapids (10nm) from the end of this year to 1Q22 due to additional validation needed for the chip,” said John Vinh, an analyst at KeyBanc, in a research note. “Production is expected to begin in 1Q22, with the ramp expected to begi... » read more

Week In Review: Manufacturing, Test


Lots more fabs and capacity The chip industry sees opportunity in shortages, and is racing to meet demand. SEMI reports 19 new worldwide high-volume fabs already have started construction, or will start by end of this year, and another 10 are scheduled in 2022. “Equipment spending for these 29 fabs is expected to surpass $140 billion over the next few years as the industry pushes to addre... » read more

An Advanced Infrastructure To Enable Secure, Cloud-Aware Design And Processed Data EDA Tool Interoperability


By Rajeev Jain, Kerim Kalafala, and Ramond Rodriguez Significant technology disruptions are on the horizon that will provide massive efficiency gains for EDA tool suppliers and semiconductor companies alike. These disruptions include the application of artificial intelligence and machine learning to enhance supplier tools and optimize user design flows and methodologies, and the ensuing migr... » read more

Week In Review: Design, Low Power


Rambus is making a push for Compute Express Link (CXL) with two acquisitions and the launch of its CXL Memory Interconnect Initiative. The initiative aims to define and develop semiconductor solutions for advanced data center architectures, with initial research and development focusing on solutions to support key memory expansion and pooling use cases. CXL is an open interconnect specificat... » read more

Week In Review: Manufacturing, Test


Chipmakers SiFive has received a takeover offer from Intel, according to a report from Bloomberg. The asking price is more than $2 billion. ------------------------------------------------------------------ IBM has filed suit against GlobalFoundries (GF), alleging fraud and breach of contract committed by GF. IBM’s suit, filed in the Supreme Court of the state of New York, seeks relief... » read more

Week In Review: Design, Low Power


Siemens Digital Industries Software acquired Pro Design's proFPGA product family of FPGA desktop prototyping technologies. Through a prior OEM relationship, proFPGA technology is already part of the Xcelerator portfolio; Siemens noted that the acquisition will allow for fuller integration with its Veloce hardware-assisted verification system. Pro Design will continue to operate as an independen... » read more

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