Executive Insight: Taher Madraswala


Semiconductor Engineering sat down with Taher Madraswala, president of Open-Silicon, to talk about future challenges, opportunities and changes. What follows are excerpts of that interview. SE: What worries you most? Madraswala: What worries me at the industry-level is the growing effect that business constraints are having on product innovation. We’ve done a very good job of advancing ... » read more

Making Software Better


Gauging the energy efficiency of software is a difficult task. There are many types of software, from embedded code all the way up to software that controls various modes of operation to downloaded applications. Some software interacts with other software, while other software works independently. And some works better on one SoC configuration than another, or on one iteration of an operating s... » read more

Changing The IP Supplier Paradigm


Just a few years ago, the [getkc id="43" comment="Intellectual Property"] (IP) business consisted of small blocks being sold by small companies and an almost over the wall delivery mechanism. The industry quickly realized the problems with this supply chain and the IP business went through very rapid change. At the same time, the average size of the IP blocks has increased and today, what we th... » read more

Established Nodes Getting New Attention


As the price of shrinking features increases below 28nm, there has been a corresponding push to create new designs at established nodes using everything from near-threshold computing to back biasing and mostly accurate analog sensors. The goals of power, performance and cost haven’t changed, but there is a growing realization among many chipmakers that the formula can be improved upon with... » read more

The Revolution Will Not Be Televised: It Will Be On Your Phone


The advent of smart devices has ushered in a revolution all over the world. The most widely used smart device is the mobile phone, which has radically changed the way we communicate. There are many other types of devices running 24/7 in our homes, hospitals, businesses, etc. No matter what kind of functionality smart devices have, they have one thing in common: they all consume energy. They ... » read more

Selecting An Operating System For Embedded Applications


It seems these days, just about every embedded system has some type of operating system. And there are more options today as to which OS to choose. Is open source your best choice? What about a free RTOS? In this paper, learn the pros and cons of the many OS options available today and how to select the right OS for your next embedded project. To read more, click here. » read more

Designing For Security


Some level of security is required in SoC today, whether it is in hardware, software or — most commonly — both. Of course, there is a price to pay from a power and performance perspective, but thankfully just a small one in most cases. The explosion of consumer devices has driven the need for increased security features in smart cards, smart phones, personal computers, home networks, and... » read more

IP Integration Challenges Rising


It’s not just [getkc id="80" comment="lithography"] that is putting a crimp in sub-28nm designs. As more functions, features, transistors and software are added onto chips, the pressure to get chips out the door has forced chipmakers to lean more heavily on third-party IP providers. Results, as you might expect, have been mixed. The number of blocks has mushroomed, creating its own web of ... » read more

Software Design Moves Virtual Prototyping Into The Mainstream


With the high level of integration of CPUs, GPUs, and DSPs in today’s System-on-Chip (SoC) and ASIC devices, software is becoming a primary driver of system innovation. This, along with the increasing pressure to reduce system development time, makes it critical to get a working hardware prototype into the hands of the various software teams as quickly as possible. Traditional prototyping met... » read more

Next Bonanza: Security Holes


Security threats—both real and potential—are beginning to reshape the semiconductor business. These threats are drawing venture capitalists back into the industry as they race for the next big opportunity. They are blurring the lines between software and hardware, as threats grow in complexity at every level of a device and its myriad and sometimes perpetual connections to the outside wo... » read more

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