Google’s TPU v4 Architecture: 3 Major Features


A new technical paper titled "TPU v4: An Optically Reconfigurable Supercomputer for Machine Learning with Hardware Support for Embeddings" was published by researchers at Google. Abstract: "In response to innovations in machine learning (ML) models, production workloads changed radically and rapidly. TPU v4 is the fifth Google domain specific architecture (DSA) and its third supercomputer f... » read more

System Bits: June 2


Subcutaneous medicine chip A biosensor chip developed at EPFL is capable of simultaneously monitoring the concentration of a number of molecules, such as glucose and cholesterol, and certain drugs. It’s only a centimeter long, placed under a patient’s skin, powered by a patch on the surface of the skin, and communicates with a mobile phone. [caption id="attachment_20134" align="alig... » read more

The Road Ahead for 2014: Semiconductors


Last week, Semiconductor Engineering examined the 2014 predictions from several thought leaders in the industry and published those predictions that related to general market trends. Many of those predictions require some advances in semiconductor technologies and fabrications capabilities. It is those predictions that will be examined in this part, followed next week by the predictions related... » read more

Optical interconnect for flexible electronics


By Michael P.C. Watts At Photonics West, Dow Corning and IBM disclosed a photo-patternable optical interconnect materials set that can support 25 cm interconnect lengths, can be part of a flexible PCB, and survive the industry standard “Telcordia” environmental stress test. The idea of optical interconnect has been circulating as soon as it was realized that chip to chip communication... » read more