Fixing The Supply Chain

By Ed Sperling - 24 Jan, 2013 - Comments: 0

For all the promise and subsequent anxiety about moving to the next process node or stacking die, the real problem isn’t technology. It isn’t even cost per transistor. It’s who will take responsibility when something goes wrong. Notice the word “when” rather than “if.” Rising complexity means that chips no longer can be fully verified, so errors are a given. Some errors are wor... » read more

Virtual IDM Progress Report

By Ed Sperling - 06 Dec, 2012 - Comments: 0

By Ed Sperling Complexity, tight power budgets, disaggregation of the supply chain and market fragmentation are conspiring to force much tighter partnerships among companies that develop different pieces of an SoC, as well as those that collaborate on even larger systems. This confluence of factors has forced the rules for how companies work together to be rewritten, but even within that frame... » read more

Commoditizing Green

By Ed Sperling - 03 Nov, 2011 - Comments: 0

Over the past five decades, Moore’s Law has been a powerful guiding principle for shrinking process geometries and improving performance. But with performance now considered secondary to energy and power efficiency, the same forces that have worked to commoditize performance increases while slashing costs will be applied to saving battery life and drawing less energy from the wall. This i... » read more

Cyclical Behavior

By Ed Sperling - 26 May, 2011 - Comments: 0

As we head into yet another DAC, this may seem like a bad case of déjà vu. While there’s plenty of new stuff—and even some new companies—there are some key trends that seem very familiar. Here are four to consider: 1. Cloud computing. For anyone who’s old enough to remember time-sharing on university computers, cloud computing should look very familiar. The scheduling is more so... » read more

Effects Unknown

By Ed Sperling - 22 Apr, 2011 - Comments: 0

f you really want to know what’s going on inside the IC design world, pick up a copy of the annual reports of the largest foundries. Then triangulate that with the earnings reports of the largest makers of computers and mobile electronics and the makers of EDA tools and IP. All three areas are experiencing a massive uptick, which is good news considering the travails of the past couple of ... » read more

Wafer Demand Grows Despite Supply Chain Jitters

By Joanne Itow - 07 Feb, 2011 - Comments: 0

By Joanne Itow Semiconductor revenue growth broke records in 2010 increasing almost 32% over 2009. Units grew an equally impressive 25% forcing manufacturers to increase productivity and ramp up additional capacity as quickly as possible. Increased use of leading edge process technology was evident as products processed at 45nm and smaller grew to 16.8% of the total silicon demand in 2010... » read more

Road Construction Ahead

By Ed Sperling - 25 Feb, 2010 - Comments: 0

A long-running joke in Canada is there are only two seasons—winter and road repair. Dating back from the days of ancient times, roads have united empires. In a more figurative sense, they have made the best corporations better than their competitors. And on a conceptual level, they have linked together theories and concepts that previously had functioned in separate worlds. In SoC d... » read more

Value Shift

By Ed Sperling - 27 Jan, 2010 - Comments: 0

System Level Design talks with Tom Quan of TSMC, John Koeter of Synopsys, Kalar Rajendiran of eSilicon and Phil Yastrow of Avago about where the value has shifted in the semiconductor design chain and why. [youtube vid=MvSaHSYDqVQ] » read more

Compression Effect

By Ed Sperling - 19 Nov, 2009 - Comments: 0

For all the talk of restricted design and increasing complexity, it seems that what’s really happening is that restrictions are being lifted off one group and placed on another. This happens from time to time in system-level design, usually at an inflection point in the overall system development process or at the start of a new process node. For the past couple decades, much of the crea... » read more

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Knowledge Centers
Entities, people and technologies explored

Shift Left Is The Tip Of The Iceberg

A transformative change is underway for semiconductor design and EDA. New languages, models, and abstractions will need to be created.

by Brian Bailey

Partitioning In The Chiplet Era

Understanding how chiplets interact under different workloads is critical to ensuring signal integrity and optimal performance in heterogeneous designs.

by Ann Mutschler

3.5D: The Great Compromise

Pros and cons of a middle-ground chiplet assembly that combines 2.5D and 3D-IC.

by Ed Sperling

AI’s Role In Chip Design Widens, Drawing In New Startups

Focus is on letting engineers do much more with the same or fewer resources — and less drudgery.

by Karen Heyman

Key Technologies To Extend EUV To 14 Angstroms

Alongside high-NA EUV will be better-performing photoresists, reduced roughness using passivation and etch, and lateral etching to reduce tip-to-tip dimensions.

by Laura Peters

What Comes After HBM For Chiplets

The standard for high-bandwidth memory limits design freedom at many levels, but that is required for interoperability. What freedoms can be taken from other functions to make chiplets possible?

by Brian Bailey

Memory Fundamentals For Engineers

eBook: Nearly everything you need to know about memory, including detailed explanations of the different types of memory; how and where these are used today; what's changing, which memories are successful and which ones might be in the future; and the limitations of each memory type.

by The SE Staff

Why Small Fab And Assembly Houses Are Thriving

Megafabs churning out the most advanced processors are not the only game in town.

by Bryon Moyer

tag: supply chain