Power/Performance Bits: Feb. 9


Molybdenum disulfide memristors Researchers at Michigan Technological University constructed an ideal memristor based on molybdenum disulfide nanosheets. "Different from an electrical resistor that has a fixed resistance, a memristor possesses a voltage-dependent resistance," said Yun Hang Hu, professor of materials science and engineering at MTU, adding that a material's electric propert... » read more

China’s Impact On The Semiconductor Market


China’s impact on the semiconductor market is unmistakable. The question so many industry watchers wonder: Is it the new center of the semiconductor universe? Some statistics may help determine the answer. China topped the list of five worldwide exporters in 2014, with the European Union coming in second. The U.S. finished third, followed by Germany and, in fifth place, Japan. (See Fig. 1... » read more

In The Era Of Driverless Cars, OTP Will Rule


Visit any car dealership these days and prepare to be amazed by the amount of electronics that comes standard with each car. That’s about to get even more evident as we head into the era of the driverless car, otherwise known as the connected or autonomous car. Who isn’t ready to leave the driving to electronics? The typical driver won’t be all that interested to learn that embedded me... » read more

IoT Design Challenges


Low-cost IoT designs that interface with the real world incorporate multiple design domains that individually are challenging for today’s engineers, so it’s no surprise that putting them all together creates extreme pressure on IoT design teams. The typical IoT device contains a sensor and an actuator that interface to the Internet. The sensor creates a signal based on some real-world ac... » read more

Fallout From Scaling


By Ed Sperling & Ann Steffora Mutschler Semiconductor scaling is becoming much more difficult and expensive at each new node, creating sharp divisions about what path to take next for which markets and applications. What used to be confined to one or two clear choices is now turning into a menu of items and possibilities, often with no clear guarantees for a successful outcome. Views ... » read more

Upcoming Hurdles For The Semiconductor Industry


Semiconductor Engineering sat down to discuss upcoming challenges and hurdles to overcome for the semiconductor industry with Vic Kulkarni, senior vice president and general manager, RTL Power Business at Ansys-Apache; Chris Rowen, Fellow and CTO, IP Group at Cadence; Subramani Kengeri, vice president, Global Design Solutions at GLOBALFOUNDRIES; Simon Davidmann, CEO of Imperas Software; Michael... » read more

Time For Change


Semiconductor companies have been knocking on doors outside of the computer industry for the better part of two decades, pitching the value of digital and mixed-signal technology for improving efficiency in many market sectors. For most of that time, they received polite nods, occasional inquiries for more information and not much else. But over the past several years, those doors have open... » read more

Device Adequateness


There is a growing chorus of people who are saying that 2016 will be, quite frankly, a boring technology year. They talk about no new or exciting products coming along. They talk about a lack of imagination, a lack of new product categories and quite a few failed categories from the past couple of years, such as wearables. It all comes down to the fact that products have not managed to make us ... » read more

DAC Finds A New Voice


DAC stands for Design Automation Conference. Everyone: please stop saying “the DAC conference”. This may not be as widespread as folks calling an automated teller machine an ATM machine, although it’s still odd. But I digress… This year, the 53rd DAC will be held in Austin, Texas starting June 5. I’ve been going to DAC for more years than I will ever put in writing. I’ve seen so... » read more

Predictions For 2016: Tools and Flows


Seventeen companies sent in their predictions for this year with some of them sending predictions from several people. This is in addition to the CEO predictions that were recently published. That is a fine crop of views for the coming year, especially since they know that they will be held accountable for their views and this year, just like the last, they will have to answer for them. We beli... » read more

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