Tech Talk: 2.5D Issues


Bill Isaacson, director of ASIC marketing at eSilicon, about how viable this packaging approach is, organic vs. inorganic interposers, where the problems are, thermal coupling, interposer cost, and what will change over the next couple years. » 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

Are Chips Getting More Reliable?


Reliability is emerging as a key metric in the semiconductor industry, alongside of power, performance and cost, but it also is becoming harder to measure and increasingly difficult to achieve. Most large semiconductor companies look at reliability in connection with consumer devices that last several years before they are replaced, but a big push into automotive, medical and industrial elec... » read more

System-Aware Full-Chip Power Integrity And Reliability


At the core of every electronics system is a chip that has to meet multiple conflicting requirements such as increased functionality, best power efficiency, highest reliability, lowest design cost and short design schedule. Meeting these requirements poses a major challenge, especially for systems on chip (SoCs) that are designed using advanced processes. Ensuring that the SoCs meet power an... » read more

Quality And Safety In Automotive Electronics: Venturing beyond ISO-26262


By Bernard Murphy and Jim Hogan Rumors of ‘Project Titan’, the Apple Car, are making the rounds. True or not, when we hear Apple touted as a potential automaker, it’s clear how pervasively electronic content has invaded our cars. A 2013 National Auto Dealers Association report graded electronic content at 15% of auto-buying decision factors, impressive growth from close to zero only... » read more

Using Automotive-Ready IP To Accelerate SoC Development


IP suppliers play a key role in the automotive supply chain to enable high-performance advanced driver assistance system (ADAS) SoCs. Vision-based SoCs may contain a high amount of third-party IP to implement the key embedded vision, sensor fusion, multimedia, security and advanced connectivity functions. And while IP suppliers have permeated the semiconductor ecosystem for consumer, mobile, PC... » read more

How To Fix Common Power Problems


As the industry moves to ever more advanced technology nodes, managing power has emerged as a primary challenge in modern SoC design. With smaller nodes, the wires become taller and narrower, which increases the resistivity and leads to more pronounced voltage drop effects. Electro-migration effects are also more severe at advanced nodes, causing serious reliability concerns. Both RTL synthesis... » read more

NoC Reliability: Simplified


Recently, the reliability features of on-chip network (NoC) IP have received much attention. One reason for this focus has been the rush of companies to get into the automotive electronics market and the explosion of new automotive features being implemented in electronic systems. While the details may vary, the high-level view of on-chip network reliability is really quite simple. At the ar... » read more

Automotive Drives Novel IP Demands


In the past the automotive industry was a bit sleepy when it came to technologic innovations. Clearly, this is no longer the case. The automotive segment is now driving interesting capabilities and an unprecedented level of creativity by the IP and SoC engineering teams targeting this now-dynamic sector. Historically, electronics for automotive was very different from those aimed at consumer... » read more

System-Aware SoC Power, Noise And Reliability Sign-off


In globally competitive markets for mobile, consumer and automotive electronic systems, the critical success factors are power consumption, performance and reliability. To manage these conflicting requirements, design teams consider multiple options, including the use of advanced process technology nodes — especially FinFET-based devices. These advanced technology nodes allow chips to operate... » read more

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