Rethinking SSDs In Data Centers


Semiconductors that control how data gets on and off solid-state drives (SSDs) inside of data centers are having a moment in the sun. This surge in interest involves much more than just the SSD device. It leverages an entire ecosystem, starting with system architects and design engineers, who must figure out the best paths for data flow on- and off-chip and through a system. It also includes... » read more

Altering A Car’s Behavior With Updates


The electronic content inside a car is growing rapidly, which is having a big effect on the way in which different vehicles are designed and built. As a direct consequence of this, the biggest technical change is now beginning to happen – one that overturns the traditional relationship between the car manufacturer and the car owner. With many subsystems now controlled by microprocessors ru... » read more

The Secret Life Of Accelerators


Accelerator chips increasingly are providing the performance boost that device scaling once provided, changing basic assumptions about how data moves within an electronic system and where it should be processed. To the outside world, little appears to have changed. But beneath the glossy exterior, and almost always hidden from view, accelerator chips are becoming an integral part of most des... » read more

Blog Review: July 19


Synopsys' Prishkrit Abrol provides a detailed explanation of how the USB Type-C connector works. Mentor's Ricardo Anguiano examines how the RISC-V ecosystem is expanding and latest developments in the open source toolchain. Cadence's Gopi Krishnamurthy explains the lane margining requirements of the PCIe 4.0 specification. ARM's Chet Babla unravels some claims about Narrowband IoT, Cat... » read more

What Does An IoT Chip Look Like?


By Ed Sperling and Jeff Dorsch Internet of Things chip design sounds like a simple topic on the face of it. Look deeper, though, and it becomes clear there is no single IoT, and certainly no type of chip that will work across the ever-expanding number of applications and markets that collectively make up the IoT. Included under this umbrella term are sensors, various types of processors, ... » read more

The Insatiable Need For Bandwidth


With the push for more and more Wi-Fi bandwidth, the WLAN industry, its standards committees, and the Ethernet switch manufacturers are having a hard time keeping up with the need for more speed. As the industry prepares for upgrading to 802.11ac Wave 2 and the promise of 11ax, the ability of Ethernet over existing copper wiring to meet the increased transfer speeds is being challenged. And wha... » read more

Open-Source NFV


The OPNFV Summit in Beijing earlier this month brought together developers, end users, and other communities all working to advance open source Network Functions Virtualization (NFV). What's new is an effort to make NFV more efficient. A highlight of the event was the announcement of an exciting new platform for accelerating NFV software development, the “NFV PicoPod”. Developed in coll... » read more

Blog Review: June 28


Mentor's Craig Armenti notes the benefits, and challenges, of investing in modular design in the PCB domain. Cadence's Paul McLellan covers a DAC chat with CEO Lip-Bu Tan on the rise of advanced packaging and investments in AI and autonomous driving. Synopsys' Jim Hartnett examines some of the challenges and tradeoffs involved in building good security practices in hospital environments. ... » read more

Blog Review: June 21


Mentor's John McMillan looks into the unique form-factors and components influencing IoT PCB designs. Cadence's Paul McLellan notes some big topics at the Samsung Foundry Forum: FD-SOI, embedded MRAM, and which gate-all-around FET architecture may be the winner. Synopsys' Eric Huang has a lighthearted look at why to buy IP versus building it. Rambus' Aharon Etengoff points to another U... » read more

Architecture First, Node Second


What a difference a node makes. A couple of rather important changes have occurred in the move from 16/14 to 10/7nm (aside from more confusing naming conventions). First, companies that require more transistors—processor companies such as [getentity id="22846" e_name="Intel"], AMD, [getentity id="22306" comment="IBM"] and [getentity id="22676" e_name="Qualcomm"]—have come to grips with t... » read more

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