Dealing With System-Level Power


Analyzing and managing power at the system level is becoming more difficult and more important—and slow to catch on. There are several reasons for this. First, design automation tools have lagged behind an understanding of what needs to be done. Second, modeling languages and standards are still in flux, and what exists today is considered inadequate. And third, while system-level power ha... » read more

Performance To The People


Ever since the IoT became a household term, the almost universal concept was that extremely low-power, simplistic devices would rule the edge. They would collect data, send it to the cloud, and the cloud would send back useful information. That's a great marketing concept for gateways and cloud services, but it's not scalable. Consumers don't just want to know when their heartbeat is irregul... » read more

Toward Better Accelerators


In the not-too-distant past, the standard mobile application processor architecture was the predominant one used for most System-on-Chip (SoC) designs, but that is rapidly changing as new systems and applications emerge in the post-mobile computing era. New requirements for autonomous driving are motivating technology innovations: Visual processing, deep neural networks and machine learning pla... » read more

EDA Moves Out Of The Shadows


EDA has long harbored ambitions that are larger than a piece of silicon. The engineering challenges being solved on a nanometric scale are remarkably similar to ones being solved at a much higher level—architectural design, layout, validation, verification, debug, thermal mapping, and a lot more. The problem, at least until recently, is that it has been difficult to gain a foothold in larg... » read more

Power State Switching Gets Tougher


Power state switching delay is a key factor in minimizing power, and getting it right frequently means the difference between a successful design and a dead chip. But tradeoffs are intricate, complex and often involve judgment calls, making this a place where designs can go completely awry. For years, traditional, full-swing [gettech id="31093" comment="CMOS"] process technologies were used ... » read more

Overcoming The Limits Of Scaling


Semiconductor Engineering sat down to discuss the increasing reliance on architectural choices for improvements in power, performance and area, with [getperson id="11425" comment=" Sundari Mitra"], CEO of [getentity id="22535" comment="NetSpeed Systems"]; Charlie Janac, chairman and CEO of [getentity id="22674" e_name="Arteris"]; [getperson id="11032" comment="Simon Davidmann"] CEO of [getentit... » read more

Multi-Board System Design


The last decade has seen extraordinary advances in printed circuit board design and fabrication. There has been substantial advances across design, from schematic entry to simulation to layout and routing to team collaboration and even to the way that manufacturing data is transferred to the fabricator. But there is one place where advancement has seemingly been stalled: the overarching system-... » read more

Security Becomes A Multi-System Issue


The fallout from the Mirai malware attack last week was surprising, given that it was published on the Internet several months ago as open-source. Despite numerous warnings, it still managed to cause denial of service attacks at Amazon, Netflix, and a slew of other companies that are supposed to be able to fend off these kinds of attacks. The good news is that it more people talking about th... » read more

Executive Insight: Wally Rhines


[getperson id="11694" p_name="Wally Rhines"], chairman and CEO of [getentity id="22017" e_name="Mentor Graphics"], sat down with Semiconductor Engineering to talk about changes in automotive electronics, IoT security issues, and how this affects semiconductor design. What follows are excerpts of that conversation. SE: In automotive, one of the big changes is that we are no longer dealing wit... » read more

Executive Insight: Sundari Mitra


Sundari Mitra, co-founder and CEO of [getentity id="22535" e_name="NetSpeed Systems"], sat down with Semiconductor Engineering to discuss machine learning, shifting from a processor-centric to a memory-centric design, and what needs to change to make that all happen. What follows are excerpts of that conversation. SE: What is the biggest change you’re seeing? Mitra: We go through a cycl... » read more

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