Data Movement Is the Energy Bottleneck of Today’s SoCs


In today’s AI-focused semiconductor landscape, raw compute performance alone no longer defines the effectiveness of a system-on-chip (SoC). The efficiency of data movement across the chip has become just as important. Whether designed for data centers or edge AI devices, SoCs must now prioritize data transport as a core architectural consideration. Moving data efficiently across the silicon f... » read more

Combination of Coherent and Non-Coherent NoCs Facilitates Cutting-Edge SoC Design


SCALINX, a fabless semiconductor company specializing in the design of system-on-chip (SoC) devices, was looking to develop a large, next-generation SoC integrating analog, digital, mixed-signal, and RF functionality. Business Challenge • Develop a large, next-generation SoC integrating analog, digital, mixed-signal, and RF functionality. Design Challenges • Ensure different portions ... » read more

Unleashing AI Potential Through Advanced Chiplet Architectures


The rapid proliferation of machine-generated data is driving unprecedented demand for scalable AI infrastructure, placing extreme pressure on compute and connectivity within data centers. As the power requirements and carbon footprint of AI workloads rise, there is a critical need for efficient, high-performance hardware solutions to meet growing demands. Traditional monolithic ICs will not sca... » read more

What Exactly Are Chiplets And Heterogeneous Integration?


The terms “chiplet” and “heterogeneous integration” fill news pages, conference papers, and marketing presentations, and for the most part engineers understand what they're reading. But speakers sometimes stumble during a presentation trying to figure out whether a particular die qualifies as a chiplet, and heterogeneous integration comes in different guises for different people. Both t... » read more

Top 5 Reasons Engineers Need A Smart NoC


As system-on-chip (SoC) designs grow more complex, IP interconnect engineers struggle with achieving optimal scalability, performance, and power efficiency. The increasing number of IP blocks, often ranging from 50 to more than 500, introduces significant interconnect congestion, timing closure issues, and power dissipation challenges. Additionally, many network-on-chip (NoC) design tasks are s... » read more

Boost SoC Efficiency And Speed With FlexGen Smart NoC IP Automation


Today’s high-end SoCs contain many heterogeneous processing elements to address the needs of HPC and AI applications. These include Central Processing Units (CPUs), Graphics Processing Units (GPUs), Neural Processing Units (NPUs), Tensor Processing Units (TPUs), and other hardware accelerators. Furthermore, IPs may contain clusters of these processor cores, and SoC subsystems may include arra... » read more

Interconnects Approach Tipping Point


As leading devices move to next generation nanosheets for logic, their interconnections are getting squeezed past the point where they can deliver low resistance pathways. The 1nm (10Å) node will have 20nm pitch and larger metal lines, but the interconnect stack already consumes a third of device power and accounts for 75% of the chip's RC delay. Changing this dynamic requires a superior co... » read more

Low-Temperature Solid-Liquid Interdiffusion Bonding For High-Density Interconnect Applications


A new technical paper titled "Facilitating Small-Pitch Interconnects with Low-Temperature Solid-Liquid Interdiffusion Bonding" was published by researchers at Aalto University in Finland. Abstract "The trend for 3D heterogeneous integration drives the need for a low-temperature bonding process for high-density interconnects (HDI). The Cu-Sn-In based solid-liquid interdiffusion (SLID) is a p... » read more

UCIe For 1.6T Interconnects In Next-Gen I/O Chiplets For AI Data Centers


The rise of generative AI is pushing the limits of computing power and high-speed communication, posing serious challenges as it demands unprecedented workloads and resources. No single design can be optimized for the different classes of models – whether the focus is on compute, memory bandwidth, memory capacity, network bandwidth, latency sensitivity, or scale, all of which are affected by ... » read more

What’s Next For Through-Silicon Vias


From large TSVs for MEMS to nanoTSVs for backside power delivery, cost-effective process flows for these interconnects are essential for making 2.5D and 3D packages more feasible. Through-silicon vias (TSVs) enable shorter interconnect lengths, which reduces chip power consumption and latency to carry signals faster from one device to another or within a device. Advanced packaging technology... » read more

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