3D-IC Ecosystem Starts To Take Form


The adoption of chiplets is inevitable, but exactly when a mass migration toward this design approach will begin is yet to be determined. Nevertheless, some of the biggest technological and business-related barriers are being addressed. And while a chiplet-based design remains beyond the economic reach of many companies today, that is starting to change. Early signs of an emerging ecosystem ... » read more

EDA Revenue Hit Record High In Q3


EDA and IP revenue increased 8.8% in Q3 2024, dragged down from the double-digit growth of recent quarters by a softening in sales to China, according to the most recent report by SEMI. For more than a decade, China's growth propped up the entire tools industry, reporting consistent double-digit growth growth that reached as high as 40% quarter over quarter. But with ongoing trade restrictio... » read more

Aging, Complexity, And AI In Analog Design


Experts at the Table: Semiconductor Engineering sat down to discuss abstraction in analog vs. digital, how analog circuits age, the growing role of AI, and why there is so much margin in analog designs, with Mo Faisal, president and CEO of Movellus; Hany Elhak, executive director of product management at Synopsys; Cedric Pujol, product manager at Keysight; and Pradeep Thiagarajan, principal pro... » read more

Why 40G UCIe IP?


AI applications are bringing new challenges to the semiconductor industry. There is an increased demand for greater bandwidth, especially for compute and networking applications to support the high data processing required by deep learning and machine learning algorithms. The requirements for these AI applications are different for die-to-die interfaces. Let’s take 100Tb networking switches a... » read more

Increasing Design Flexibility With RISC-V-Based Processor IP


The semiconductor industry increasingly needs more flexible and scalable processor architectures, driving the growing adoption of RISC-V. Originally developed at the University of California, Berkeley, the open-source RISC-V instruction set architecture (ISA) has become very popular in recent years. RISC-V allows designers to customize their processor implementations to meet the specific needs ... » read more

EDA And IP Revenue Grow, But Markets Are Shifting


EDA and IP revenue grew 18.2% worldwide to $4.69 billion in Q2, year-over-year, with all product categories and regions reporting increases, but a drill down into the numbers shows some new pockets of growth and weakness The Asia/Pacific region exhibited strong growth once again, but the dynamics in that market have changed significantly. China is no longer the primary revenue generator for ... » read more

A New Generation Of 7400 Socket


When I was 18, and just been accepted at Brunel University in West London to start my undergraduate degree in electrical and electronic engineering, I sent off a letter to Texas Instruments telling them about the journey ahead of me and asked if they could they send me a copy of their TTL Data Book. A few weeks later a package arrived and there it was. This incredible brown/orange book, thicker... » read more

Streamlining Complex Semiconductor Designs With IP-XACT-Based Structured Assembly


Semiconductor design is rapidly evolving because technologies such as AI and machine learning (ML) applications push the boundaries of complexity and specialization. Modern chips require hundreds or thousands of IP blocks, leading to significant design challenges. Multi-die architectures, which distribute functional blocks across multiple dice, demand expert planning to ensure connectivity and ... » read more

Accelerating The Pace And Precision Of AI Chip Innovation


The Hot Chips 2024 conference, which took place this week in Silicon Valley, was a showcase for AI chip innovation. The three-day program illustrated the race among both established chipmakers and new entrants to explore advanced architectures and embrace novel design solutions to deliver the next breakthrough AI processor. In this article, I share a few “hot takes” from the conference that... » read more

AI/ML’s Role In Design And Test Expands


The role of AI and ML in test keeps growing, providing significant time and money savings that often exceed initial expectations. But it doesn't work in all cases, sometimes even disrupting well-tested process flows with questionable return on investment. One of the big attractions of AI is its ability to apply analytics to large data sets that are otherwise limited by human capabilities. In... » read more

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