Chip Industry Week In Review


The EU Commission approved €920 million in German State aid to support Infineon in setting up its Smart Power Fab in Dresden. Total funding for the Dresden site amounts to about €1 billion. PDF Solutions will acquire secureWISE for $130 million to expand the reach of its semiconductor manufacturing data platform, providing secure, remote access monitoring and control. Tariffs, trade, and ... » read more

Memory Wall Problem Grows With LLMs


The growing imbalance between the amount of data that needs to be processed to train large language models (LLMs) and the inability to move that data back and forth fast enough between memories and processors has set off a massive global search for a better and more energy- and cost-efficient solution. Much of this is evident in the numbers. The GPU market is forecast to reach $190 billion in ... » read more

Universities Augment Engineering Curricula To Boost Employability


Increasing numbers of universities are offering semiconductor courses in their engineering programs, and also in math, physics, and business degrees. Most universities now offer a broad foundation so students can pivot to other industries during cyclical downturns, or when technology and science create entirely new and potentially lucrative opportunities, such as generative AI, advanced pack... » read more

Chip Industry Technical Paper Roundup: Feb. 4


New technical papers recently added to Semiconductor Engineering’s library: [table id=403 /] Find all technical papers here. » read more

Processing-Using-DRAM: Attaining High-Performance Via Dynamic Precision Bit-Serial Arithmetic (ETH Zurich, et al.)


A new technical paper titled "Proteus: Achieving High-Performance Processing-Using-DRAM via Dynamic Precision Bit-Serial Arithmetic" was published by researchers at ETH Zurich, Cambridge University, Universidad de Córdoba, Univ. of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and NVIDIA Research. Abstract "Processing-using-DRAM (PUD) is a paradigm where the analog operational properties of DRAM structures ... » read more

Chip Industry Week In Review


The new Trump administration was quick to put a different stamp on the tech world: President Trump rescinded a long list of Biden’s executive orders, including those aimed at AI safety and the mandate for 50% EVs by 2030. Roughly 1.3 million EVs were sold in the U.S. in 2024, up 7.3% from 2023. The new administration announced $500 billion ($100 billion initially) in private sector in... » read more

Global IC Fabs And Facilities Report: 2024


The chip industry made significant capital investments this year to build new fabs and facilities or expand existing premises. A number of sites were dedicated to SiC, GaN, DRAM, HBM, along with packaging and assembly by OSATs, and essential gases, chemicals, and other components. More than a dozen R&D centers were also established for 8-inch wafers, EUV, and advanced packaging. Investments... » read more

Chip Industry Technical Paper Roundup: Jan. 20


New technical papers recently added to Semiconductor Engineering’s library: [table id=398 /] Find all technical papers here. » read more

Chip Industry Week In Review


GlobalFoundries will create a new center for advanced packaging and testing of U.S.-made essential chips within its New York manufacturing facility. A flurry of announcements on advanced semiconductors and AI rolled out this week as U.S. President Biden wrapped up his term: The Biden-Harris Administration released an Interim Final Rule on Artificial Intelligence Diffusion to strengthen ... » read more

Geometric-Aware Model Merging Approach To Enhance Instruction Alignment in Chip LLMs (Nvidia)


A new technical paper titled "ChipAlign: Instruction Alignment in Large Language Models for Chip Design via Geodesic Interpolation" was published by researchers at NVIDIA Research. Abstract: "Recent advancements in large language models (LLMs) have expanded their application across various domains, including chip design, where domain-adapted chip models like ChipNeMo have emerged. However, ... » read more

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