Techno-Morality Is Our Concern


A decade or so ago, [getentity id="22035" e_name="Synopsys"] Chairman of the Board and co-CEO [getperson id="11034" comment="Aart de Geus"] gave a bunch of talks about the importance of Techonomics. Fundamentally this was about the merging of technology and business economics. De Geus saw that we were entering a period of connected everything, and that devices increasingly would be driven by in... » read more

Working With FinFETs


One of the key technology trends driving semi-conductor industry is the adoption of finFET processes. As opposed to a traditional planar transistor, the finFET has an elevated channel or “fin,” which the gate wraps around. Due to their structure, finFETs generate much lower leakage power and allow greater device density. Compared to planar transistors, finFET operate at a lower voltage and ... » read more

Thermal Damage To Chips Widens


Heat is becoming a much bigger problem for semiconductor and system design, fueled by higher density and the increasing use of complex chips in markets such as automotive, where reliability is measured in decade-long increments. In the past, heat typically was handled by mechanical engineers, who figured out where to put heat sinks, fans, or holes to funnel heat out of a chassis. But as more... » read more

One On One: John Lee


John Lee, general manager and vice president of Ansys—and the former CEO of data analytics firm Gear Design Solutions, which Ansys acquired in September—sat down with Semiconductor Engineering to talk about how big data techniques can be used in semiconductor and system design. What follows are excerpts of that conversation. SE: What's your goal now that Gear has been acquired by [getent... » read more

OTP Dynamic Power Cut By Factor Of 10


Of the challenges being addressed by Internet of Things (IoT) designers around the globe, none is more pressing than the need to reduce edge-node power. While eyes often turn to the radio as primary consumer of energy, memory, including NVM memory, also contributes a substantial portion of the energy consumed by an edge node. Power reductions in all memories will be essential for meeting this c... » read more

Emerging IoT Applications Require Careful Consideration


The Internet of Things (IoT) is creating opportunities in the existing space held by traditional semiconductor applications, typically falling into categories that include industrial, fitness, health and lifestyle to apparel, safety and productivity. But there also are new, inventive devices. In the last several months, we’ve seen the launch of a canine Fitbit, a hybrid dog collar, and dyn... » read more

Gaps In Performance, Power Coverage


The semiconductor industry always has used metrics to define progress, and in areas such as functional verification significant advances have been made. But so far, no effective metrics have been developed for power, performance, or other system-level concerns, which basically means that design teams have to run blind. On the plus side, the industry has migrated from the use of code coverage... » read more

Power, Standards And The IoT


Semiconductor Engineering sat down to discuss power, standards and the IoT with Jerry Frenkil, director of open standards at [getentity id="22055" comment="Si2"]; Frank Schirrmeister, group director of product marketing of the System Development Suite at [getentity id="22032" e_name="Cadence"]; Randy Smith, vice president of marketing at [getentity id="22605" e_name="Sonics"]; and Vojin Zivojno... » read more

Outbound Power Management


Many years ago when I first suggested that we should do platform-level power instead of focusing on the CPU, I was considered somewhat of a heretic. Yet, within 10 to 15 years of that recommendation, most of the platforms around us have moved to that method using operating system functions to keep track of the overall power, battery life, etc. As we move into the era of billions of connected de... » read more

Tech Talk: Configurable Logic


Cliff Lloyd, business development director at NXP Semiconductors, talks about designing in one part for many functions to reduce power consumption and cost. [youtube vid=ut5kCm0kNwE] » read more

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