Using ML In EDA


Machine learning is becoming essential for designing chips due to the growing volume of data stemming from increasing density and complexity. Nick Ni, director of product marketing for AI at Xilinx, examines why machine learning is gaining traction at advanced nodes, where it’s being used today and how it will be used in the future, how quality of results compare with and without ML, and what... » read more

Deploying Artificial Intelligence At The Edge


By Pushkar Apte and Tom Salmon Rapid advances in artificial intelligence (AI) have made this technology important for many industries, including finance, energy, healthcare, and microelectronics. AI is driving a multi-trillion-dollar global market while helping to solve some tough societal problems such as tracking the current pandemic and predicting the severity of climate-driven events lik... » read more

How Dynamic Hardware Efficiently Solves The Neural Network Complexity Problem


Given the high computational requirements of neural network models, efficient execution is paramount. When performed trillions of times per second even the tiniest inefficiencies are multiplied into large inefficiencies at the chip and system level. Because AI models continue to expand in complexity and size as they are asked to become more human-like in their (artificial) intelligence, it is c... » read more

Why TinyML Is Such A Big Deal


While machine-learning (ML) development activity most visibly focuses on high-power solutions in the cloud or medium-powered solutions at the edge, there is another collection of activity aimed at implementing machine learning on severely resource-constrained systems. Known as TinyML, it’s both a concept and an organization — and it has acquired significant momentum over the last year or... » read more

Stepping Up To Greater Security


The stakes for security grow with each passing day. The value of our data, our devices, and our network infrastructure continually increases as does our dependence on these vital resources. Reports appear weekly, and often daily, that describe security vulnerabilities in deployments. There is a steady drumbeat of successful attacks on systems that were assumed to be protecting infrastructure, i... » read more

New Approaches For Processor Architectures


Processor vendors are starting to emphasize microarchitectural improvements and data movement over process node scaling, setting the stage for much bigger performance gains in devices that narrowly target what end users are trying to accomplish. The changes are a recognition that domain specificity, and the ability to adjust or adapt designs to unique workloads, are now the best way to impro... » read more

GDDR6 Memory On The Leading Edge


With the accelerating growth in data traffic, it is unsurprising that the number of hyperscale data centers keeps rocketing skyward. According to analysts at the Synergy Research Group, in nine months (Q2’20 to Q1’21), 84 new hyperscale data centers came online bringing the total worldwide to 625. Hyperscaler capex set a record $150B over the last four quarters eclipsing the $121B spent in ... » read more

Designing Chips In A ‘Lawless’ Industry


The guideposts for designing chips are disappearing or becoming less relevant. While engineers today have many more options for customizing a design, they have little direction about what works best for specific applications or what the return on investment will be for those efforts. For chip architects, this is proving to be an embarrassment of riches. However, that design freedom comes wit... » read more

Sweeping Changes Ahead For Systems Design


Data centers are undergoing a fundamental change, shifting from standard processing models to more data-centric approaches based upon customized hardware, less movement of data, and more pooling of resources. Driven by a flood of web searches, Bitcoin mining, video streaming, data centers are in a race to provide the most efficient and fastest processing possible. But because there are so ma... » read more

Architectural Considerations For AI


Custom chips, labeled as artificial intelligence (AI) or machine learning (ML), are appearing on a weekly basis, each claiming to be 10X faster than existing devices or consume 1/10 the power. Whether that is enough to dethrone existing architectures, such as GPUs and FPGAs, or whether they will survive alongside those architectures isn't clear yet. The problem, or the opportunity, is that t... » read more

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