The Week In Review: Manufacturing & Design


Gesture sensing is a hot topic. Apple recently confirmed the acquisition of PrimeSense for a reported $360 million. PrimeSense is an Israel-based company known for its structured light technology. “Gesture sensing of 3D depth without a controller is the standard for game consoles such as Microsoft Kinect for Xbox and new PS Camera for PlayStation 4. Clearly, a future Apple TV is the logical p... » read more

The Week In Review: System-Level Design


Synopsys won a deal with Germany’s Hyperstone, which will use Synopsys verification tools for SoCs in industrial, automotive and medical applications. As SoCs used in industrial and “safety-critical” markets grow in complexity and move to more advanced process nodes, more advanced tools also are necessary. Si2 uncorked a new release of its OpenAccess scripting interface—oaScript Exte... » read more

The Week In Review: Manufacturing & Design


Intel is getting serious about the foundry business.  “Intel CEO Brian Krzanich is making some waves. This is not because Intel is becoming more market driven, but that Intel will open its foundry to ‘any’ company able to utilize the company's leading-edge technology. It’s very refreshing to see Intel make this move and could have important implications for the industry. Based on Intel... » read more

Counting Pennies


Even Intel may not have enough cash on hand to pay for a new state-of-the-art fab at 7nm. With fully equipped fabs expected to rise into the plus-$10 billion range over the next few process nodes, and each new process shrink jam-packed with a multitude of new problems, the momentum for continuing to shrink features appears to be slowing down. Technically, it’s possible to shrink transistor... » read more

System Bits: Nov. 19


Practical Invisibility Anyone who has read Harry Potter or watched Star Trek knows how powerful invisibility can be—at least in science fiction or the world of magic. But now, two researchers in The Edward S. Rogers Sr. Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering at the University of Toronto have demonstrated an effective invisibility cloak that is thin, scalable and adaptive to diff... » read more

Collaborate Or Go Home


Technology is hard. It's no secret that it's more difficult than ever to keep devices shrinking while increasing performance. It's also old news that it is increasingly costly to be at the leading edge, as semiconductor production technology gets ever more complex — even as a maturing chip industry becomes ever more dependent on low-cost consumer devices. But it has made for some strang... » read more

Tunnel FETs Emerge In Scaling Race


Traditional CMOS scaling will continue for the foreseeable future, possibly to the 5nm node and perhaps beyond, according to many chipmakers. In fact, chipmakers already are plotting out a path toward the 5nm node, but needless to say, the industry faces a multitude of challenges along the road. Presently, the leading transistor candidates for 5nm are the usual suspects—III-V finFETs; gate... » read more

What’s After 10nm?


For some time, chipmakers have roughly doubled the transistor count at each node, while simultaneously cutting the cost by around 29%. IC scaling, in turn, enables faster and lower cost chips, which ultimately translates into cheaper electronic products with more functions. Consumers have grown accustomed to the benefits of Moore’s Law, but the question is for how much longer? Chips based ... » read more

ARMing Intel


For some time, the industry has kept a close eye on Intel’s fledging foundry business. The question is whether Intel will merely dabble in the foundry business or become a major player. The answer? It’s still too early to tell. Not long ago, Intel entered the foundry business and announced a smattering of small and niche-oriented customers, such as Achronix, Netronome and Tabula.  Micro... » read more

The Week In Review: System-Level Design


Si2’s OpenPDK rolled out its Open Process Specification 1.1, including elements necessary to automatically create a process design kit using any EDA vendor’s design flow. The standard uses formal grammar based on the XML Schema Definition. ARM won a deal with Rockchip, which is extending its license to a number of ARM processors as well as its GPU and interconnect technology. This marks ... » read more

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