There was a lot of discussion at IEDM about the coming shift to gate-all-around (GAA) transistor structures. This new device brings many benefits to continue device scaling, both at the monolithic device level as well as for multi-die design. The path to GAA is not simple, there are new material, process and design considerations… Read More
Reduce Risk, Ensure Compliance: Hardware-Assisted Verification for Design Certification
Prologue
Peter was running late for two reasons. First, he encountered unexpected heavy traffic and arrived ten minutes late for a crucial meeting with a customer to run a compliance test of his new 6G phone design prototyped on FPGAs. This prototype’s success was pivotal, as it could secure a significant purchase order.… Read More
Accelerate SoC Design: Addressing Modern Prototyping Challenges with S2C’s Comprehensive Solutions (II)
In the fast-paced world of Electronic Design Automation (EDA), the complexity of chip designs is continuously rising. With the burgeoning of systems such as 5G communication devices and Advanced Driver-Assistance Systems (ADAS) teeming with thousands of components, the demand for robust and efficient prototyping platforms… Read More
Cadence Debuts Dynamic Duo III with a Basket of Goodies
I am a fan of product releases which bundle together multiple high-value advances. That approach reduces the frequency of releases (no bad thing) in exchange for more to offer per release, better proven through solid partner validation. The Dynamic Duo III release falls in this class, offering improvements in performance, capacity,… Read More
Arm Neoverse Continues to Claim Territory in Infrastructure
After owning general purpose compute in cell phones and IoT devices, it wasn’t clear what Arm’s next act might be. Seemingly the x86 giants dominated in datacenters and auguries suggested a bloody war in smaller platforms between Arm and RISC-V. But Arm knew what they were doing all along, growing upwards into infrastructure:… Read More
5G Aim at LEO Satellites Will Stimulate Growth and Competition
Low earth orbit (LEO) satellites as an intermediary for communication became hot when Elon Musk announced Starlink (yeah, other options were available, but Elon Musk). This capability extends internet availability to remote areas and notably (for a while) to Ukraine in support of the war with Russia. Satellites can in principle… Read More
Alphawave Semi Showcases 3nm Connectivity Solutions and Chiplet-Enabled Platforms for High Performance Data Center Applications
There were quite a few announcements at the TSMC Technical Symposium last week but the most important, in my opinion, were based on TSMC N3 tape-outs. Not only is N3 the leading 3nm process it is the only one in mass production which is why all of the top tier semiconductor companies are using it. TSMC N3 will be the most successful node… Read More
TSMC 2023 North America Technology Symposium Overview Part 1
The TSMC 2023 North America Technology Symposium happened today so I wanted to start writing about it as there is a lot to cover. I will do summaries and other bloggers will do more in-depth coverage on the technology side in the coming weeks. Having worked in the fabless semiconductor ecosystem the majority of my 40 year semiconductor… Read More
DSP Innovation Promises to Boost Virtual RAN Efficiency
5G is already real, though some of us are wondering why our phone connections aren’t faster. That perspective misses the real intent of 5G – to extend high throughput (and low latency) communication to a vast number and variety of edge devices beyond our phones. One notable application is Fixed Wireless Access (FWA), promising … Read More
Semiconductors and Mobile Communications: 5G and Beyond
Mobile World Congress (MWC) is the world’s largest gathering of mobile industry innovators where one can hear the latest on advanced technologies and solutions. This year, it took place from February 27 through March 2. Soitec was there to share their insights on how mobile communications are going to evolve with 5G and beyond … Read More
TSMC Unveils the World’s Most Advanced Logic Technology at IEDM