SoC Integration Complexity: Size Doesn’t (Always) Matter


It’s common when talking about complexity in systems-on-chip (SoCs) to haul out monster examples: application processors, giant AI chips, and the like. Breaking with that tradition, consider an internet of things (IoT) design, which can still challenge engineers with plenty of complexity in architecture and integration. This complexity springs from two drivers: very low power consumption, eve... » read more

CXL: Sorting Out The Interconnect Soup


In the webinar Hidden Signals: Memory and Interconnect Decisions for AI, IoT and 5G, Shane Rau of IDC and Rambus Fellow Steven Woo discussed how interconnects were a critical enabling technology for future computing platforms. One of the major complications was the “interconnect soup” of numerous and divergent interface protocols. The Compute Express Link (CXL) standard offers to sort out m... » read more

Die-To-Die Stress Becomes A Major Issue


Stress is becoming more critical to identify and plan for at advanced nodes and in advanced packages, where a simple mismatch can impact performance, power, and the reliability of a device throughout its projected lifetime. In the past, the chip, package, and board in a system generally were designed separately and connected through interfaces from the die to the package, and from the packag... » read more

The Role Of NoCs In System-Level Services


The primary objective of any network-on-chip (NoC) interconnect is to move data around a chip as efficiently as possible with as little impact as possible on design closure while meeting or exceeding key design metrics (PPA, etc.). These networks have become the central nervous system of SoCs and are starting to play a larger role in system-level services like quality of service (QoS), debug, p... » read more

Better Analytics Needed For Assembly


Package equipment sensors, newer inspection techniques, and analytics enable quality and yield improvement, but all of those will require a bigger investment on the part of assembly houses. That's easier said than done. Assembly operations long have operated on thin profit margins because their tasks were considered easy to manage. Much has changed over the past several years, however. The r... » read more

Interconnect Challenges Grow, Tools Lag


Interconnects are becoming much more problematic as devices shrink and the amount of data being moved around a system continues to rise. This limitation has shown up several times in the past, and it's happening again today. But when the interconnect becomes an issue, it cannot be solved in the same way issues are solved for other aspects of a chip. Typically it results in disruption in how ... » read more

eFPGA As Fast And Dense As FPGA, On Any Process Node


A challenge for eFPGA when we started Flex Logix is that there are many customers and applications, and they all seemed to want eFPGA on different foundries, different nodes and different array sizes. And everyone wanted the eFPGA to be as fast and as dense as FPGA leaders’ on the same node. Oh, and customers seem to wait to the last minute then need the eFPGA ASAP. Xilinx and Altera (Intel ... » read more

The Need For 3D IC Packaging And Design Evolution


If you are familiar with Moore’s Law, you’ve probably read pronouncements that the premise of transistor counts doubling each year is reaching a wall due to complex process technologies and device physics limitations. Regardless of how well transistor counts continue to scale, market segments continue to drive the thirst for more compute performance and fast time to markets. Artificial i... » read more

Which Chip Interconnect Protocol Is Better?


Semiconductor Engineering sat down to the discuss the pros and cons of the Compute Express Link (CXL) and the Cache Coherent Interconnect for Accelerators (CCIX) with Kurt Shuler, vice president of marketing at Arteris IP; Richard Solomon, technical marketing manager for PCI Express controller IP at Synopsys; and Jitendra Mohan, CEO of Astera Labs. What follows are excerpts of that conversation... » read more

AI, Performance, Power, Safety Shine Spotlight On Last-Level Cache


Memory limitations to performance, always important in modern systems, have become an especially significant concern in automotive safety-critical applications making use of AI methods. On one hand, detecting and reporting a potential collision or other safety problem has to be very fast. Any corrective action is constrained by physics and has to be taken well in advance to avoid the problem. ... » read more

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