Security Research: Technical Paper Round-up


A number of hardware security-related technical papers were presented at the August 2023 USENIX Security Symposium. Here are some highlights with associated links. [table id=130 /] A complete listing of all papers presented at this summer's USENIX conference can be found here and here. The organization provides open access research, and the presentation slides and papers are free to the p... » read more

Research Bits: August 29


Resistive switching with hafnium oxide Researchers from the University of Cambridge, Purdue University, University College London, Los Alamos National Laboratory, and University at Buffalo used hafnium oxide to build a resistive switching memory device that processes data in a similar way as the synapses in the human brain. At the atomic level, hafnium oxide has no structure, with the hafni... » read more

Week In Review: Auto, Security, Pervasive Computing


The AI chip market is booming. Gartner expects revenue for the year will hit $53.4 billion, up 20.9% from 2022. The firm predicts that number will grow to $119 billion by 2027.  In the consumer electronics market, the value of AI-enabled application processors will amount to $1.2 billion in 2023, up from $558 million in 2022. Germany will spend nearly €1 billion (~US$1.7B) over the next t... » read more

Microarchitectural Side-Channel Attacks And Defenses on NVRAM DIMMs


A new technical paper titled "NVLeak: Off-Chip Side-Channel Attacks via Non-Volatile Memory Systems" was published by researchers at UC San Diego, Purdue University, and UT Austin. This paper was included at the recent 32nd USENIX Security Symposium. Abstract: "We study microarchitectural side-channel attacks and defenses on non-volatile RAM (NVRAM) DIMMs. In this study, we first perform r... » read more

Research Bits: August 22


Photonic memory Researchers from Zhejiang University, Westlake University, and the Chinese Academy of Sciences developed a 5-bit photonic memory capable of fast volatile modulation and proposed a solution for a nonvolatile photonic network supporting rapid training. This was made possible by integrating the low-loss phase-change material (PCM) antimonite (Sb2S3) into a silicon photonic plat... » read more

3D In-Memory Compute Making Progress


Indium compounds are showing great promise for 3D in-memory compute and RF integration, but more work is needed. Researchers continue to make headway into 3D device integration particularly with indium tin oxide (ITO), which is widely used in display manufacturing. Recent work indicates that different compounds of indium oxide doped with tin, gallium, or zinc combinations may boost transisto... » read more

Demand For Timing Innovation Grows


The semiconductor industry has begun exploring a range of timing options as demand for increased performance and more features exceeds the ability to design chips using the same techniques and technology that have been relied on for decades. Like many elements in computing, timing is a hierarchy or stack. It includes everything from partitioning AI computations into multiple parts and assemb... » read more

Week In Review: Auto, Security, Pervasive Computing


Google was hit with a class action suit in U.S. District Court in San Francisco, alleging data scraping from millions of users without consent and violation of copyright laws to train and develop its AI products. Last month, the same law firm filed a suit against OpenAI for ChatGPT. Despite calling for a pause on development of advanced AI in March, Elon Musk launched xAI, a new company focu... » read more

Chip Industry’s Technical Paper Roundup: July 5


New technical papers recently added to Semiconductor Engineering’s library: [table id=114 /] (more…) » read more

Resistive Switching Memory Based on Thin-Film Design of Amorphous Hafnium Oxide (Cambridge & Others)


A technical paper titled “Thin-film design of amorphous hafnium oxide nanocomposites enabling strong interfacial resistive switching uniformity” was published by researchers at University of Cambridge, Linköping University, Purdue University, University College London, Los Alamos National Laboratory, and University at Buffalo. Abstract: "A design concept of phase-separated amorphous nano... » read more

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