Will Steering Wheels Ever Disappear?


Autonomous vehicles are touted as the way of the future, and the general assumption is ultimately everything will be autonomous. But there are broad segments of the market where autonomy is unlikely to happen. There is no question that autonomy is possible. In fact, within certain bounds it's already here. Robo-taxis are available in some cities. Mercedes, Tesla, and Lexus are all touting so... » read more

Blog Review: Jan. 19


Synopsys' Anand Thiruvengadam examines the memory chip design challenges of optimizing PPA, speeding turnaround time, and improving reliability and how a shift-left approach can help. Cadence's Paul McLellan checks out some of TSMC's recent updates in 3D packaging and the importance of thermal analysis and finding the right balance between IR-drop and TSV usage in multi-chip physical verific... » read more

Week In Review: Design, Low Power


Nvidia again made its case for acquiring Arm to the UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA). “Arm is a private for-profit business at a crossroads. After acquiring Arm several years ago, SoftBank increased Arm’s headcount, hoping to spur long-term growth in several markets, including data center and personal computer, long dominated by Intel and x86. SoftBank’s investment phase has c... » read more

Bug Hunt! Spiraling In On Formal Coverage Closure


By Mark Eslinger and Jin Hou Many companies have used formal verification to verify complex SoCs and safety-critical designs. Using formal verification to confirm design functionalities and to uncover functional bugs is emerging as an efficient verification approach. Although formal verification will not handle the complexity of a design at the SoC level, it is an efficient tool to verify th... » read more

Is Programmable Overhead Worth The Cost?


Programmability has fueled the growth of most semiconductor products, but how much does it actually cost? And is that cost worth it? The answer is more complicated than a simple efficiency formula. It can vary by application, by maturity of technology in a particular market, and in the context of much larger systems. What's considered important for one design may be very different for anothe... » read more

Setting Ground Rules For 3D-IC Designs


Experts at the Table: Semiconductor Engineering sat down to discuss the changes in design tools and methodologies needed for 3D-ICs, with Sooyong Kim, director and product specialist for 3D-IC at Ansys; Kenneth Larsen, product marketing director at Synopsys; Tony Mastroianni, advanced packaging solutions director at Siemens EDA; and Vinay Patwardhan, product management group director at Cadence... » read more

Blog Review: Jan. 12


Synopsys' Twan Korthorst introduces the history of photonics, why it is important for the semiconductor industry, key market applications, and the future of photonic integrated circuits. Cadence's Paul McLellan takes a look at TSMC's recent announcements around its N3 and N3 HPC notes and the push for performance gains through design technology co-optimization Siemens' Sebastian Flock che... » read more

The Gargantuan 5G Chip Challenge


Blazing fast upload and download speeds for cellular data are coming, but making the technology function as expected throughout its expected lifetime is an enormous challenge that will require substantial changes across the entire chip ecosystem. While sub-6GHz is an evolutionary step from 4G LTE, the real promise of 5G kicks in with millimeter-wave (mmWave) technology. But these higher-freq... » read more

High-Quality Test And Embedded Analytics For Secure Applications


Designs for secure applications such as smart cards and those used in the defense industry require security to ensure sensitive data is inaccessible to outside agents. This used to be a somewhat niche requirement and the implementation of custom solutions to meet these specific requirements was common. However, with the explosion within the semiconductor industry of automotive and cyber-phys... » read more

Preventing Failures Before They Occur


A decade or so ago, when MEMS sensors were in the limelight, one of the touted applications was to install them on industrial or other equipment to get an advance warning if the equipment was approaching failure. Today, in-circuit monitoring brings the same promise. Are these competing technologies? Or can they be made to work together? “Almost all advanced tool manufacturing companies ... » read more

← Older posts Newer posts →