New Android release for ARM; secure credit card survey results; Synopsys, IIT model finFET reliability; Arteris inks two NoC IP deals; Qualcomm teams with SMIC on 28nm, 3D-IC.
Tools
The Android Open Source Project for ARM’s v8-A architecture is now available as part of the Linaro 14.06 release. The release has been tested on 64-bit multicore processors.
Research
NXP conducted a secure credit card survey that showed Americans are more likely to pay cash following security breaches at large retail chains, with 69% in favor of secure credit cards to guard against future breaches. Preferences ranged from embedded security chips, to a combination of chips plus pin codes rather than signatures.
Deals
Synopsys is working with the Indian Institute of Technology in Bombay on modeling reliability for finFETs at 14nm and beyond. The goal is to be able to model negative bias temperature instability, which affects threshold voltage, current transconductance and other electrical effects.
Arteris inked a deal with China’s HiSilicon, which will use its on-chip network IP for multiple SoC designs across a number of marketing segments. It signed a similar deal with Marvell for chips aimed at the mobile communications and data center markets.
China’s Actions Semiconductor is licensing ARM’s Cortex-A50 processors for the 64-bit tablet and over-the-counter set-top box markets.
Japan’s Megachips, which makes a wide variety of chips and modules, used Cadence’s RTL-to-signoff solution to slice its tapeout schedule in half, with a 9% improvement in frequency and an 8% power reduction.
Israel’s Intuitive, which develops imaging and computer vision processors, achieved first-pass silicon success using Mentor Graphics’ emulation platform.
Qualcomm is teaming up with China’s SMIC, which will manufacture Qualcomm’s Snapdragon processors using a 28nm process node with both PolySiON and high-k/metal gate technology. The companies said SMIC also will jump into 3D-IC and RF front-end wafer manufacturing for Qualcomm in the future.
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