DoD Scratches Its Head Over Foundry Security


When the GlobalFoundries deal with IBM to acquire its foundries closes, as it is slated to sometime during 2015, the U.S. Department of Defense has a small problem on its hands. Military programs no longer will have access to a trusted fab to manufacture semiconductors. How do you ensure that the foundry did not modify or alter your design, add backdoor access or implement a remote control mech... » read more

What’s Really Inside?


Is it just paranoia, or do devices ranging from industrial controls to military hardware really contain malicious code, Trojan Horses, and remotely triggered back doors? The answer is "maybe not" if you're an optimist, and "maybe" if you're a pessimist, but no one really knows for sure. And that's what really worries security experts, particularly as more devices are connected to other devices.... » read more

Security Progress In Some Places, Not Others


Security is big business, and it's increasingly part of business done between big businesses in the semiconductor market. The deal that was announced this week between NXP and Qualcomm, adding a secure NFC module to the Snapdragon chip, is certainly good business. But what's really interesting about this arrangement is that it was done between two very prominent companies, which saw a potent... » read more

Challenges For The IIoT


Unlike the [getkc id="76" comment="Internet of Things"], which is largely still a collection of connected devices that don't always play well together, the Industrial Internet of Things ([getkc id="78" kc_name="IIoT"]) already is in heavy use and growing across a number of markets well outside of the usual markets associated with semiconductors. A Morgan Stanley "blue paper" report issued la... » read more

Ecosystem Changes


Semiconductor Engineering sat down to discuss changes in the semiconductor ecosystem with Kelvin Low, senior director of foundry marketing at [getentity id="22865" e_name="Samsung Semiconductor"]; John Costello, vice president of product planning at [getentity id="22849" e_name="Altera"]; Randy Smith, vice president of marketing at [getentity id="22605" e_name="Sonics"], and Michiel Ligthart, p... » read more

Ecosystem Changes


Semiconductor Engineering sat down to discuss changes in the semiconductor ecosystem with Kelvin Low, senior director of foundry marketing at [getentity id="22865" e_name="Samsung Semiconductor"]; John Costello, vice president of product planning at [getentity id="22849" e_name="Altera"]; Randy Smith, vice president of marketing at [getentity id="22605" e_name="Sonics"], and Michiel Ligthart, p... » read more

3 Key IoT Benchmarks


The [getkc id="76" comment="Internet of Things"] has been billed as the next huge opportunity for semiconductors—tens of billions of things connected to a centralized infrastructure, to people, and in many cases to each other. After conducting hundreds of interviews with executives, engineers and university professors from all facets of the global supply chain over the past year and reviewin... » read more

Designing For Security


Stacked die may improve performance and lower power, but the use of [getkc id="203" kc_name="through-silicon vias"] (TSVs) could add new security risks. As IC structures go, the vertical component of these chip packages is both a boon and a bust. Three-dimensional geometries allow for much less complexity in design by stacking two-dimensional dies and interconnecting them in the third dimens... » read more

DNA For Cryptography Chips


Counterfeit chips are here to stay. There are all kinds of reasons they should never be used, but certain segments of the chip market have more critical fallout from such chips than others. In most cases counterfeit chip use is unintentional. It simply goes undetected in the vast supply chain, sometimes with life-threatening repercussions. But whether in life-safety or low-end consumer produ... » read more

The People Have Spoken, The Future Is Now


Last month, I mentioned we’d be doing a webinar to assess the impact of online capabilities in the semiconductor industry. On November 12th “Semiconductors Go Online and Worldwide” was broadcast. Bill Brennan from Credo Semi, Trevor Hiatt from IDT and Mahesh Tirupattur from Analog Bits joined us to share their experiences using eSilicon’s MPW and GDSII quoting portals. I have to ... » read more

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