Bulk CMOS Vs. FD-SOI


The leading edge of the chip market increasingly is divided over whether to move to finFETs or whether to stay at 28nm using different materials and potentially even advanced packaging. Decisions about which approach to take frequently boil down to performance, power, form factor, cost, and the maturity of the individual technologies. All of those can vary by market, by vendor and by process... » read more

Russian Market Overview


By Evgeny Suvorov The Russian market has turned towards the Internet of Things (IoT), with several projects underway, particularly in the areas of agriculture and mining. The largest of these projects have been initiated and backed by the state.  The most striking example is probably the introduction of the "Platon" system, an IoT-based road levy collection system comprised of on-board unit... » read more

Wafer Shortage? Reality Versus Perception


The promise of explosive growth associated with IoT has semiconductor unit forecasts growing at double-digit rates for key product categories. Anything with the word ‘sensors’ seems to be in vogue today. Sensors, image sensors, sensor hubs are all expected to benefit from the billions of connected devices that are forecasted to be in place by 2020. Semico agrees. Unit growth for key product... » read more

IP Business Models In Flux


EDA and IP suppliers are engaging with foundries earlier with each manufacturing process node, while those foundries are providing ever more optimized and tuned processes to their customers. As part of this, IP providers must port their IP offerings to the various foundries and processes, putting a squeeze on resources. That raises some difficult questions, such as how to prioritize their li... » read more

Keeping The Whole Package Cool


Heat dissipation is a critical issue for designers of complex chip-stacking and system-in-package devices. The amount of heat generated by a device increases as the number of transistors goes up, but the ability to dissipate the heat depends on the package surface area. Because the goal of 3D packaging is to squeeze more transistors into less overall space, new heat dissipation issues are em... » read more

FinFET Scaling Reaches Thermal Limit


In 1974, Robert H. Dennard was working as an IBM researcher. He introduced the idea that MOSFETs would continue to work as voltage-controlled switches in conjunction with shrinking features, providing doping levels, the chip's geometry, and voltages are scaled along with those size reductions. This became known as Dennard's Law even though, just like Moore's Law, it was anything but a law. T... » read more

Evolving LTE Brings New Era Of Connectivity To IoT


The Internet of Things is here and ramping deployment today, but there’s still considerable work underway to optimize many aspects of the network. Not the least of this are the access technologies that exist or are emerging to enable the ‘last mile’ connectivity for IoT connected objects. Wireless access broadly fits into two main areas: licensed band and unlicensed band. Short-range unli... » read more

Engineering The Internet Of Things


All around us connected devices are proliferating. New, innovative products are emerging almost daily, and familiar products are benefiting from newer, smarter functionality. These developments come with the promise of making us healthier and safer, as well as more efficient, innovative, competitive and profitable. The Internet of Things, or IoT, which holds great potential, also presents new c... » read more

Rethinking Main Memory


With newer, bigger programs and more apps multitasking simultaneously, the answer to making any system run faster, from handheld to super computer, was always just to add more DRAM. . . and more, and more and more. From data centers to wearables, that model no longer works. By offloading the storage of programs to less expensive solid-state drives (SSDs) and only using a small amount of exp... » read more

Autonomous Vehicle Disruptions Ahead


The promise of autonomous driving is a significant one, with far fewer fatalities from vehicle crashes — down from 30,000 annually — topping the list of benefits. Beyond that, autonomous driving also promises increased convenience and productivity and less troublesome commutes. But autonomous driving also pushes automotive technology into uncharted areas. There is little to fall back on ... » read more

← Older posts Newer posts →