General-Purpose 32-bit RISC-V MCU Core Expands Design Freedom

By Daryl Khoo - 09 May, 2024 - Comments: 0

The microcontroller sector is evolving in an exciting direction by providing designers with a growing menu of choices tailored to their performance and power requirements. Unlike the classic 1990s debate between the merits of x86 (CISC) and PowerPC (RISC) CPU architectures, there is plenty of room under the MCU tent for competing – and complementary – processor cores. The common denominator... » read more

Reducing Noise Issues In Microcontroller Systems: Part 1

By Graeme Clark - 22 Jun, 2023 - Comments: 0

In my ideal digital world, of which I often dream, signal voltage margins are always positive, signal timing margins are always positive, power supply voltages are always within the operating voltage range, and our environment is completely benign. Unfortunately, none of us live in this ideal world, no matter how much I would like to. The real world is dirty and noisy, and the power distribu... » read more

Object Detection CNN Suitable For Edge Processors With Limited Memory

By Technical Paper Link - 14 Jun, 2023 - Comments: 0

A technical paper titled “TinyissimoYOLO: A Quantized, Low-Memory Footprint, TinyML Object Detection Network for Low Power Microcontrollers” was published by researchers at ETH Zurich. Abstract: "This paper introduces a highly flexible, quantized, memory-efficient, and ultra-lightweight object detection network, called TinyissimoYOLO. It aims to enable object detection on microcontrol... » read more

EPFL’s Open Source Single-Core RISC-V Microcontroller for Edge Computing

By Technical Paper Link - 30 Apr, 2023 - Comments: 0

A new technical paper titled "X-HEEP: An Open-Source, Configurable and Extendible RISC-V Microcontroller" was published by researchers at Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL). Abstract: "In this work, we present eXtendible Heterogeneous Energy-Efficient Platform (X-HEEP), a configurable and extendible single-core RISC-V-based ultra-low-power microcontroller. X-HEEP can be used ... » read more

Automotive MCUs: Digital Twin of the LBIST Functionality

By Technical Paper Link - 15 Feb, 2023 - Comments: 0

A new technical paper titled "A Novel LBIST Signature Computation Method for Automotive Microcontrollers using a Digital Twin" was written by researchers at Infineon Technologies, University of Bremen, and DFKI GmbH. Abstract "LBIST has been proven to be an effective measure for reaching functional safety goals for automotive microcontrollers. Due to a large variety of recent innovative fea... » read more

Training a ML model On An Intelligent Edge Device Using Less Than 256KB Memory

By Technical Paper Link - 11 Oct, 2022 - Comments: 0

A new technical paper titled "On-Device Training Under 256KB Memory" was published by researchers at MIT and MIT-IBM Watson AI Lab. “Our study enables IoT devices to not only perform inference but also continuously update the AI models to newly collected data, paving the way for lifelong on-device learning. The low resource utilization makes deep learning more accessible and can have a bro... » read more

Integrate FPGAs For A Customizable MCU

By Andy Jaros - 05 Aug, 2021 - Comments: 0

MCUs come in a broad range of flavors, meaning you can pick the best one for the application with the right performance, feature set, peripherals, memory, and software programmability. So, then, why do many systems also use FPGAs next to the MCUs? Usually, it’s because there’s not a “perfect” MCU for their application. MCUs by definition are built to be generic for a wide variety of app... » read more

MPU Vs. MCU

By Bryon Moyer - 01 Dec, 2020 - Comments: 1

There was a time when microprocessors and microcontrollers were distinct devices. There was never a question as to which one you were dealing with. But changes in the memory architecture have muddied the distinction in modern devices. There are a number of ways in which microprocessors and microcontrollers could possibly be differentiated. But there is no universal agreement as to how that s... » read more

What Happened To Execute-in-Place?

By Bryon Moyer - 25 Aug, 2020 - Comments: 0

Executing code directly from non-volatile memory, where it is stored, greatly simplifies compute architectures — especially for simple embedded devices like microcontrollers (MCUs). However, the divergence of memory and logic processes has made that nearly impossible today. The term “execute-in-place,” or ”XIP,” originated with the embedded NOR memory in MCUs that made XIP viable. ... » read more

Week In Review: Design, Low Power

By Ed Sperling - 14 Feb, 2020 - Comments: 0

Processors Arm rolled out a micro neural processing unit that, when combined with its newest microcontroller, can increase machine learning performance by up to 480 times. The company is aiming the MCU and co-processor across a wide swath of applications. Worth noting is that Arm calls its Cortex-M55 an AI-capable processor, rather than a microcontroller, as the lines between the various proce... » read more

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Entities, people and technologies explored

Shift Left Is The Tip Of The Iceberg

A transformative change is underway for semiconductor design and EDA. New languages, models, and abstractions will need to be created.

by Brian Bailey

Partitioning In The Chiplet Era

Understanding how chiplets interact under different workloads is critical to ensuring signal integrity and optimal performance in heterogeneous designs.

by Ann Mutschler

NAND Flash Targets 1,000 Layers

New techniques go beyond improved deposition and etching, but challenges stack up, too.

by Bryon Moyer

3.5D: The Great Compromise

Pros and cons of a middle-ground chiplet assembly that combines 2.5D and 3D-IC.

by Ed Sperling

AI’s Role In Chip Design Widens, Drawing In New Startups

Focus is on letting engineers do much more with the same or fewer resources — and less drudgery.

by Karen Heyman

What Comes After HBM For Chiplets

The standard for high-bandwidth memory limits design freedom at many levels, but that is required for interoperability. What freedoms can be taken from other functions to make chiplets possible?

by Brian Bailey

Memory Fundamentals For Engineers

eBook: Nearly everything you need to know about memory, including detailed explanations of the different types of memory; how and where these are used today; what's changing, which memories are successful and which ones might be in the future; and the limitations of each memory type.

by The SE Staff

Why Small Fab And Assembly Houses Are Thriving

Megafabs churning out the most advanced processors are not the only game in town.