The Week In Review: Design


M&A GlobalFoundries formed Avera Semiconductor, a wholly-owned subsidiary focused on custom ASIC designs. While Avera will use its relationship with GF for 14/12nm and more mature technologies, it has a foundry partnership lined up for 7nm. The new company's IP portfolio includes high-speed SerDes, high-performance embedded TCAMs, ARM cores and performance and density-optimized embedded SR... » read more

Quantum Random Numbers Future-Proof Encryption


It may be a decade or more before quantum computers become common enough that we'll find out whether "post-quantum cryptography" will stand up to genuine quantum computers. In the meantime, some quantum researchers are peeling off specific functions and turning them into products or companies so that it's possible to take advantage of the potential of quantum computers without actually havin... » read more

The Blockchain – Not As Secure As You Think


The blockchain has the potential to touch all aspects of our everyday lives, from buying and trading cryptocurrency, to securing vital healthcare records, to proving that a tomato really is organic. The security challenges, specifically the vulnerability of private keys faced by the cryptocurrency market, prove that before the transformative impact of blockchain technology can be realized, a co... » read more

Week in Review: IoT, Security, Auto


Internet of Things Arm aims to accelerate Linux-based embedded design through providing quick access to the Cortex-A5 CPU under the Arm DesignStart program. Developers can work on embedded and Internet of Things system-on-a-chip devices for gateways, medical systems, smart homes, and wearable electronics. IP access to the Cortex-A5 is now $75,000, with one-year of design support from Arm exper... » read more

Week in Review: IoT, Security, Auto


Internet of Things At Arm TechCon, Arm unveiled its Neoverse brand identity, providing an infrastructure foundation for 5G, the Internet of Things, edge computing, and other applications. The Arm Neoverse IP will proliferate next year from Arm and its technology partners. With Arm’s “Ares” platform, to be introduced in 2019, the company promises to deliver 30% per-generation performance ... » read more

Week In Review: Design, Low Power


Arm announced its new roadmap promising 30% annual system performance gains on leading edge nodes through 2021. These gains are to come from a combination of microarchitecture design to hardware, software and tools. They are branding this new roadmap 'Neoverse.' The first delivery will be Ares – expected in early 2019 – for a 7nm IP platform targeting 5G networks and next-generation cloud t... » read more

Blog Review: Oct. 17


Arm's Shidhartha Das explores the challenges of power delivery in designing mobile systems and the importance of focusing on peak power consumption. Synopsys' Meenakshy Ramachandran explains the basics of Display Stream Compression and how it works to increase the effective bandwidth enabling support of high resolution displays. Cadence's Paul McLellan shares tips on more effective market... » read more

RISC-V: More Than a Core


The open-source RISC-V instruction set architecture (ISA) is attracting a lot of attention across the semiconductor industry, but its long-term success will depend on levels of cooperation never seen before in the semiconductor industry. The big question now is how committed the industry is to RISC-V's success. The real value that RISC-V brings is the promise of an ecosystem and the opportun... » read more

Week in Review: IoT, Security, Auto


Deals Dialog Semiconductor made a blockbuster deal with Apple – the chip company will license power management technologies and transfer some assets to Apple, which will use them in their internal chip research and development. More than 300 Dialog employees, mostly engineers, will join Apple, which will pay $300 million in cash for the transaction and prepay another $300 million for Dialog ... » read more

Week In Review: Design, Low Power


Deals AI startup Enflame (Suiyuan) Technology purchased multiple licenses of Arteris IP's FlexNoC interconnect IP for use as the on-chip communications backbone of its AI training chips for use in cloud datacenters. Enflame cited easy creation of regular topologies used in AI chips and the ability to take advantage of HBM2 memories. Phison, a maker of NAND flash controller ICs, inked�... » read more

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