Blog Review: Oct. 19


Siemens EDA's Harry Foster examines trends related to various aspects of FPGA design and the growing design complexity associated with increasing number of embedded processor cores, asynchronous clock domains, and more safety features. Synopsys' Twan Korthorst and Kenneth Larsen take a broad look at silicon photonics, including the benefits of electronic integration, accelerating the develop... » read more

Complex Tradeoffs In Inferencing Chips


Designing AI/ML inferencing chips is emerging as a huge challenge due to the variety of applications and the highly specific power and performance needs for each of them. Put simply, one size does not fit all, and not all applications can afford a custom design. For example, in retail store tracking, it's acceptable to have a 5% or 10% margin of error for customers passing by a certain aisle... » read more

Week In Review: Semiconductor Manufacturing, Test


The United States imposed further export controls aimed at preventing foreign firms from selling advanced chips to China or supplying Chinese firms with semiconductor processing tools. Under new regulations, companies looking to supply Chinese chipmakers with advanced manufacturing equipment (<14nm) must first obtain a license from the U.S. Department of Commerce. Officials noted that they h... » read more

Foundational Changes In Chip Architectures


We take many things in the semiconductor world for granted, but what if some of the decisions made decades ago are no longer viable or optimal? We saw a small example with finFETs, where the planar transistor would no longer scale. Today we are facing several bigger disruptions that will have much larger ripple effects. Technology often progresses in a linear fashion. Each step provides incr... » read more

Beyond Autonomous Cars


As the automotive industry takes a more measured approach to self-driving cars and long-haul trucks for safety and security reasons, there is a renewed focus on other types of vehicles utilizing autonomous technology. The list is long and growing. It now includes autonomous trains, helicopters, tractors, ships, submarines, drones, delivery robots, motorcycles, scooters, and bikes, all of whi... » read more

Blog Review: Oct. 12


Synopsys' Richard Solomon, Madhumita Sanyal, and Gary Ruggles take a look at the possibilities that CXL 3.0 can bring to a variety of data-driven applications that demand increasingly higher levels of memory capacity, with higher bandwidth, more security, and lower latency. Siemens EDA's Rich Edelman provides some tips for debugging UVM testbenches, such as how to determine what line changed... » read more

Why Silent Data Errors Are So Hard To Find


Cloud service providers have traced the source of silent data errors to defects in CPUs — as many as 1,000 parts per million — which produce faulty results only occasionally and under certain micro-architectural conditions. That makes them extremely hard to find. Silent data errors (SDEs) are random defects produced in manufacturing, not a design bug or software error. Those defects gene... » read more

Debug This! How To Simplify Coverage Analysis And Closure


For years the process of ASIC and FPGA design and verification debug consisted primarily of comprehending the structure and source code of the design with waveforms showing activity over time, based on testbench stimulus. Today, functional verification is exponentially complex with the emergence of new layers of design requirements (beyond basic functionality) that did not exist years ago — f... » read more

Week In Review: Semiconductor Manufacturing, Test


Micron selected Syracuse, New York as the site for its new megafab complex, which is expected to create 9,000 company jobs and 40,000 construction and supply chain jobs. President Biden called it “another win for America.” The chip manufacturing facility will be the nation’s largest, including a 7.2 million square foot complex and 2.4 million square foot of cleanroom. Site preparation wil... » read more

Week In Review: Auto, Security, Pervasive Computing


Automotive, mobility Infineon opened a new factory in Cegléd, Hungary, for assembly and test of high-power semiconductor modules for EVs. “The new manufacturing capacities will help Infineon accommodate the growing demand for electromobility applications,” said Infineon’s COO Rutger Wijburg in a press release. Production ramp-up started in February 2022. Infineon also announced it will ... » read more

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