Chip Industry Week In Review


President Biden will raise the tariff rate on Chinese semiconductors from 25% to 50% by 2025, among other measures to protect U.S. businesses from China’s trade practices. Also, as part of President Biden’s AI Executive Order, the Administration released steps to protect workers from AI risks, including human oversight of systems and transparency about what systems are being used. Intel ... » read more

Week In Review: Design, Low Power


Power always has been a function of cost. The more power required, the more it costs to run a device, both in dollars and carbon footprint. This makes the breakthrough in fusion ignition at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory all the more noteworthy, and one that could have significant implications for the future of computing, from data centers to rechargeable batteries in automobiles, robot... » read more

Technical Paper Round-Up: April 5


Neuromorphic chips, transistor defect detection, quantum, pellicles, BEV mobile charging, copper wire bonding, LrWPAN, batteries and superconductivity top the past week's technical papers. They also point to a rising level of government investment, and collaborations between schools that historically haven't worked closely together, including one that involves schools on different continents. ... » read more

Chiplets Enter The Supercomputer Race


Several entities from various nations are racing each other to deliver and deploy chiplet-based exascale supercomputers, a new class of systems that are 1,000x faster than today’s supercomputers. The latest exascale supercomputer CPU and GPU designs mix and match complex dies in advanced packages, adding a new level of flexibility and customization for supercomputers. For years, various na... » read more

Week In Review: Design, Low Power


Deals Utilidata and Nvidia are teaming up on a software-defined smart grid chip that can be embedded in smart meters to with the aim of improving grid resiliency and integrating distributed energy resources (DERs) such as solar, storage, and electric vehicles. The U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) will test the software-defined smart grid chip as a way t... » read more

Manufacturing Bits: Nov. 8


Plasma R&D with quantum computing Rigetti Computing, a developer of quantum computers, has been selected to lead a quantum simulation project for the development of fusion energy. The project was awarded by the Department of Energy (DoE). Under the plan, Rigetti will collaborate with Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and the University of Southern California on a three-year, $3.1 m... » read more

Manufacturing Bits: Nov. 3


Zeptosecond measurements A group of researchers have set a new world’s record for the shortest timespan measurement. DESY, Fritz-Haber-Institute and Goethe University Frankfurt have measured how long it takes for a photon to cross a hydrogen molecule. The result? About 247 zeptoseconds. A zeptosecond is a trillionth of a billionth of a second (10-21 seconds). This is said to be the sh... » read more

Manufacturing Bits: May 11


Covid-19 data mining Using machine learning and other technologies, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) has developed a data text-mining tool to help synthesize a growing amount of scientific literature on Covid-19. Each day, some 200 new journal articles are being published on the coronavirus alone, according to Berkeley Lab. Berkeley Lab’s data mining tool, which is liv... » read more

Manufacturing Bits: Feb. 25


Diamond finFETs HRL Laboratories has made new and significant progress to develop diamond finFETs. HRL, a joint R&D venture between Boeing and General Motors, has developed a new ohmic regrowth technique for diamond FETs. This in turn could pave the way towards commercial diamond FETs. Applications include spacecraft, satellites and systems with extreme temperatures. Still in R&D, diamo... » read more

Manufacturing Bits: Feb. 10


Accelerating and cooling muons Using a novel particle accelerator, a group for the first time have observed a phenomenon called muon ionization cooling–an event that could give researchers a better understanding of matter and the universe. Muons are obscure sub-atomic particles. This experiment could pave the way towards the development of new and powerful muon particle accelerators. Thes... » read more

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