Blog Review: June 22


Arm's Andrew Pickard checks out a project at Sorbonne Université in Paris that is using the Cortex-M3 processor source code to model what is happening in the hardware at the microarchitectural level and find ways to prevent side-channel leakage of sensitive cryptographic information. Cadence's Paul McLellan digs into the development of high-NA EUV lithography and some of the challenges ahea... » read more

Power Domain Implementation Challenges Escalate


The number power domains is rising as chip architects build finer-grained control into chips and systems, adding significantly to the complexity of the overall design effort. Different power domains are an essential ingredient in partitioning of different functions. This approach allows different chips in a package, and different blocks in an SoC, to continue running with just enough power t... » read more

Week In Review: Manufacturing, Test


Node scaling wars are revving up, although much of the action is happening where most people can't see it — inside of research labs. This is difficult stuff, which makes delivery dates difficult to pinpoint, and no one wants to give away their competitive position or commit to a timeline they can't keep. Billions of dollars of leading-edge research — funded by pure-play foundry TSMC, IDM... » read more

Week In Review: Design, Low Power


Tools, design, chips Altair, a provider of software and cloud services for CAE, HPC, simulation, and data analysis, acquired Concept Engineering, a provider of automatic schematic generation tools, electronic circuit and wire harness visualization platforms that provide on-the-fly visual rendering, and electronic design debug solutions. “Concept Engineering’s advanced, reactive visualizati... » read more

Week In Review: Auto, Security, Pervasive Computing


Automotive, mobility U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) release its first crash reports from ADAS (advanced driver assistance systems, i.e., SAE Level 2) and ADS (automated driving systems, i.e., SAE Levels 3-5).  The systems had to be in use at least 30 seconds before the crash in order for it to be reportable. The car may have had the system turned off at the time ... » read more

Variation Making Trouble In Advanced Packages


Variation is becoming increasingly problematic as chip designs become more heterogeneous and targeted by application, making it difficult to identify the root cause of problems or predict what can go wrong and when. Concerns about variation traditionally have been confined to the most advanced nodes, where transistor density is highest and where manufacturing processes are still being fine-t... » read more

Blog Review: June 15


Ansys' Vidyu Challa considers common primary, or single-use, battery chemistries and how they affect that many important cell properties, such as energy density, flammability and safety, available cell constructions, temperature range, and shelf life. Synopsys' Rimpy Chugh and Rohit Kumar Ohlayan discuss some of the challenges arising from static linting of code, shifting linting left in the... » read more

Audio, Visual Advances Intensify IC Design Tradeoffs


A spike in the number of audio and visual sensors is greatly increasing design complexity in chips and systems, forcing engineers to make tradeoffs that can affect performance, power, and cost. Collectively, these sensors generate so much data that designers must consider where to process different data, how to prioritize it, and how to optimize it for specific applications. The tradeoffs in... » read more

DRAM Thermal Issues Reach Crisis Point


Within the DRAM world, thermal issues are at a crisis point. At 14nm and below, and in the most advanced packaging schemes, an entirely new metric may be needed to address the multiplier effect of how thermal density increasingly turns minor issues into major problems. A few overheated transistors may not greatly affect reliability, but the heat generated from a few billion transistors does.... » read more

IP Industry Transformation


The design IP industry is developing an assortment of new options and licensing schemes that could affect everything from how semiconductor companies collaborate to how ICs are designed, packaged, and brought to market. The IP market already has witnessed a sweeping shift from a "design once, use everywhere" approach, to an "architect once, customize everywhere" model, in which IP is highly ... » read more

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