Power/Performance Bits: Dec. 1


Hiding wires from the sun There's a problem with most solar cells: the electricity-carrying metal wire grid on top prevents sunlight from reaching the semiconductor below. A team from Stanford University tackled this problem, discovering a way to hide the reflective upper contact and funnel light directly to the semiconductor below. For the study, the researchers placed a 16-nanometer-thi... » read more

System Bits: Aug. 11


Fundamental physics discovery The study of correlated electrons — a branch of fundamental physics research — focuses on interactions between the electrons in metals, which now are understood a bit better, according to Caltech researchers. Understanding these interactions and the unique properties they produce could lead to the development of novel materials and technologies, but they mu... » read more

System Bits: June 16


Origami robot At the recent International Conference on Robotics and Automation, MIT researchers presented a printable origami robot that folds itself up from a flat sheet of plastic when heated and measures about a centimeter from front to back. The robot weighs just a third of a gram, and can swim, climb an incline, traverse rough terrain, and carry a load twice its weight. Other than the... » read more

System Bits: June 9


Optical constraints Stanford University researchers have discovered strong constraints to optical data transmission but hope it can guide future research in this area. As a reminder, optics, a form of data transmission that utilizes beams of light, has the promise to outperform the beams of electrons that drive computers or smartphones. And as engineers have long looked for a way to miniatu... » read more

Power/Performance Bits: June 9


Building foam batteries out of trees A method for making elastic high-capacity batteries from wood pulp was unveiled by researchers in Sweden and the US. Using nanocellulose broken down from tree fibers, a team from KTH Royal Institute of Technology and Stanford University produced an elastic, foam-like battery material that can withstand shock and stress. "It is possible to make incredib... » read more

DAC 2015: Day One


It requires a certain dedication to attend technical DAC sessions on a Sunday morning, but full day workshops start before 9:00am for those dedicated to hearing about the latest work being conducted in academia and the research arm of industry. These are highly technical sessions that target academics and those serious about keeping a pulse on up and coming technologies. One such workshop wa... » read more

System Bits: June 2


Subcutaneous medicine chip A biosensor chip developed at EPFL is capable of simultaneously monitoring the concentration of a number of molecules, such as glucose and cholesterol, and certain drugs. It’s only a centimeter long, placed under a patient’s skin, powered by a patch on the surface of the skin, and communicates with a mobile phone. [caption id="attachment_20134" align="alig... » read more

Brain-Inspired Computing


Approaching power/performance tradeoffs from an architectural perspective is essential given the complexities of today’s SoCs. And beyond some traditional techniques that I discussed in a recent article, Bernard Murphy, CTO at Atrenta mentioned that there is currently a lot of buzz about using non-Von Neumann architectures — especially for recognition functions (voice, image and text). ... » read more

Power/Performance Bits: Jan. 20


Boosting silicon solar cells According to Stanford researchers, stacking crystalline perovskites onto a conventional silicon solar cell dramatically improves the overall efficiency of the cell. The researchers reminded that silicon solar cells dominate the world market, but the power conversion efficiency of silicon photovoltaics has been stuck at 25 percent for 15 years. One inexpensive wa... » read more

System Bits: Dec. 16


High rise chip For decades, the mantra of the semiconductor industry has been ‘smaller, faster, cheaper.’ Stanford researchers are also adding ‘taller’ to the mix, and describing how to build high-rise chips that promise to leapfrog the performance of the single-story logic and memory chips on today's circuit cards. Stanford researchers said their approach would end the ‘logjams�... » read more

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