Node Skipping Reaches New Heights


By Mark LaPedus For years, silicon foundries have rolled out their respective leading-edge processes roughly on a two-year cadence. The long-standing goal has been to keep foundry customers on a competitive price, power and performance curve. But as leading-edge chipmakers move from the 28nm node and beyond, the predictable process progression is changing. And the phenomenon of “node skip... » read more

New Low-Power Memory Interface Ahead


By Pallab Chatterjee The trend in consumer electronic devices is toward a multimedia-centric data flow, forcing changes in the memory interface needed to handle it. The increased compute resources needed for video signal processing, along with high-definition audio, used to be the exclusive domain of mainstream desktop computers and servers due to their access to memory and high data throug... » read more

Your Light Bulb Is Calling


By Pallab Chatterjee The mobility that is best associated with “smart phone” functionality is making its way into most other electronic systems. At ISSCC and even the Strategies in Light conference, systems and products were being shown featuring standard RF interfaces. The RF is being made available as standalone die for multi-die and 3D packaging, as well as in SoC IP blocks. The func... » read more

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