How Is The Chip Industry Really Doing?


Throughout 2023, the general consensus among chip industry watchers was that IC sales were flat to down, fueled by market saturation for smart phones and PCs and excess inventory and capacity in DRAM and flash. But that doesn't tell the whole story, which is becoming highly nuanced and complicated. Unlike in the past, understanding how the chip industry is faring is no longer a simple math f... » read more

Scaling Server Memory Performance To Meet The Demands Of AI


AI, whether we’re talking about the number of parameters used in training or the size of large language models (LLMs), continues to grow at a breathtaking rate. For over a decade, we’ve witnessed a 10X per year scaling. It’s a growth rate that puts pressure on every aspect of the computing stack: processing, memory, networking, you name it. The platform vendors are responding to the in... » read more

SRAM’s Role In Emerging Memories


Experts at the Table — Part 3: Semiconductor Engineering sat down to talk about AI, the latest issues in SRAM, and the potential impact of new types of memory, with Tony Chan Carusone, CTO at Alphawave Semi; Steve Roddy, chief marketing officer at Quadric; and Jongsin Yun, memory technologist at Siemens EDA. What follows are excerpts of that conversation. Part one of this conversation can be ... » read more

Machine Learning Based MBIST Area Estimation


Majority of the silicon with-in a design is occupied by memories. Memories are more prone to failures than logic due to their density. Several techniques have been established to target and detect defects within these memory instances and their interfacing logic. The most widely used approach is memory built-in self-test (MBIST) that inserts on-chip hardware unit(s) which provides systematic me... » read more

What You Needed To Know In 2023


I always use the last blog of the year to review everything published in the Systems & Design and Low Power – High Performance channels of Semiconductor Engineering, the two channels that I write for. It is useful to see what interests you and, as I have found in the past, it is an indicator of where the industry is going. You read about the issues you are facing as designers, and you nee... » read more

HBM3 Memory: Break Through to Greater Bandwidth


Delivering unrivaled memory bandwidth in a compact, high-capacity footprint, has made HBM the memory of choice for AI/ML and other high-performance computing workloads. HBM3 as the latest generation of the standard raises data rates to 6.4 Gb/s and promises to scale even higher. The Rambus HBM3 controller provides industry-leading support of the extended roadmap for HBM3 with performance to 9.6... » read more

DRAM Choices Are Suddenly Much More Complicated


Chipmakers are beginning to incorporate multiple types and flavors of DRAM in the same advanced package, setting the stage for increasingly distributed memory but significantly more complex designs. Despite years of predictions that DRAM would be replaced by other types of memory, it remains an essential component in nearly all computing. Rather than fading away, its footprint is increasing,... » read more

The Power Of HBM3 Memory For AI Training Hardware


AI training data sets are constantly growing, driving the need for hardware accelerators capable of handling terabyte-scale bandwidth. Among the array of memory technologies available, High Bandwidth Memory (HBM) has emerged as the memory of choice for AI training hardware, with the most recent generation, HBM3, delivering unrivaled memory bandwidth. Let’s take a closer look at this important... » read more

Understanding Memory Protection Units


Let’s talk about the various security measures we take to protect our homes. We use locks, install security cameras to detect any suspicious activities, etc., all to safeguard our loved ones and valuable possessions. In similar sense, the tiny microcontrollers inside our devices have protection units (PU) that safeguard the precious resource: memory. One of the most important types of prote... » read more

Closing The Performance Gap Between DRAM And AI Processors


As the workhorse of semiconductor memory, DRAM holds a unique place in the industry thanks to its large storage capacity and ability to feed data and program code to the host processor quickly. Lately, this unsung hero of the circuit board has been taking a backseat to its logic counterparts, as a wave of high-performance FPGAs, CPUs, GPUs, TPUs and custom accelerator ASICs emerges to meet t... » read more

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