Using CNNs To Speed Up Systems


Convolutional neural networks (CNNs) are becoming one of the key differentiators in system performance, reversing a decades-old trend that equated speed with processor clock frequencies, the number of transistors, and the instruction set architecture. Even with today's smartphones and PCs, it's difficult for users to differentiate between processors with 6, 8 or 16 cores. But as the amount o... » read more

A Tale of Two Testers


David Tacelli, president and CEO of Xcerra, was excited. His company’s reception for customers (and the press) at the Trou Normand restaurant in San Francisco’s hip South of Market neighborhood was going very well. Gourmet salames and other tasty foods were on offer, along with fine wines and craft ales and beers. He gleefully pointed out to editors that the product to be introduced at t... » read more

5 Big Under-The-Hood Engineering Challenges In Building Autonomous Vehicles


Stories about autonomous vehicles are regular fare in the tech news cycle and usually include forecasts about the eventual ascendancy of self-driving cars. The Boston Consulting Group, for example, says that by 2035, 25% of all cars will have partial or full autonomy, with total global sales growing from near-zero levels in 2015 to $42 billion in 2025 and ~ $77 billion by 2035. In short few ye... » read more

The Week In Review: IoT


Finance August Home received $25 million in Series C funding, bringing its total funding to $75 million. Existing investors Bessemer Venture Partners, Comcast Ventures, Maveron, and Qualcomm Ventures were joined by AGL, Liberty Mutual, and SPDG. The Internet of Things startup will use the money to expand operations and to extend its offerings in home access products and services. Prospera, ... » read more

What Does An IoT Chip Look Like?


By Ed Sperling and Jeff Dorsch Internet of Things chip design sounds like a simple topic on the face of it. Look deeper, though, and it becomes clear there is no single IoT, and certainly no type of chip that will work across the ever-expanding number of applications and markets that collectively make up the IoT. Included under this umbrella term are sensors, various types of processors, ... » read more

Power/Performance Bits: July 18


Ad hoc "cache hierarchies" Researchers at MIT and Carnegie Mellon University designed a system that reallocates cache access on the fly, to create new "cache hierarchies" tailored to the needs of particular programs. Dubbed Jenga, the system distinguishes between the physical locations of the separate memory banks that make up the shared cache. For each core, Jenga knows how long it would t... » read more

Using An Integrated Subsystem To Accelerate Data Fusion In Your SoC


The fusion of sensor data, voice, audio and biometrics is constantly increasing the processing requirements for applications in mobile, automotive and IoT markets. Next-generation digital sensors require higher bandwidths, and more advanced voice detection and speech recognition algorithms are driving the development of progressively more complex embedded ICs. Sensor fusion to data fusion T... » read more

CMOS Image Sensors (CIS): Past, Present & Future


Over the last decade, CMOS Image Sensor (CIS) technology has made impressive progress. Image sensor performance has dramatically improved over the years, and CIS technology has enjoyed great commercial success since the introduction of mobile phones using onboard cameras. Many people, including scientists and marketing specialists, predicted 15 years earlier that CMOS image sensors were going t... » read more

Tech Talk: Neural Networks


Megha Daga, senior technical marketing manager at Cadence, talks with Semiconductor Engineering about convolutional neural networks, including the bandwidth and compute challenges associated with them. » read more

Will Higher Production Costs Hamper IoT Growth?


No question, 2017 is expected to be a good year for the semiconductor industry. Semiconductor revenues for 2017 are expected to increase more than 9% this year. A 6% increase in unit sales, as well as higher average selling prices for memory products, will help drive the revenue growth rate to its highest level since 2010. Wafer demand is forecast to grow by almost 8%. The higher revenue growth... » read more

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