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Multi-Vt Device Offerings for Advanced Process Nodes

Multi-Vt Device Offerings for Advanced Process Nodes
by Tom Dillinger on 06-26-2020 at 6:00 am

Ion Ioff

Summary
As a result of extensive focus on the development of workfunction metal (WFM) deposition, lithography, and removal, both FinFET and gate-all-around (GAA) devices will offer a wide range of Vt levels for advanced process nodes below 7nm.

Introduction
Cell library and IP designers rely on the availability of nFET and pFET… Read More


Nobody Ever Lost Their Job for Spending too Much on Hardware Verification, Did They?

Nobody Ever Lost Their Job for Spending too Much on Hardware Verification, Did They?
by Daniel Nenni on 06-25-2020 at 6:00 am

Silicon Bug Cost Scenario

A paper was published last month on the Acuerdo Consultancy Services website authored by Joe Convey of Acuerdo and Bryan Dickman of Valytic Consulting. Joe and Bryan spent combined decades in the Semi and EDA World which means they have a great understanding of hardware bugs first hand, absolutely.

Here is a quick summary… Read More


Key Semiconductor Conferences go Virtual

Key Semiconductor Conferences go Virtual
by Scotten Jones on 06-24-2020 at 2:00 pm

IEDM 2020 Logo

This last week the 2020 Symposia on VLSI Technology and Circuits (VLSI Conference) was held as a virtual conference for the first time and it was announced today (June 24th) that this year’s IEDM conference will also be held as a virtual conference.

“The IEDM Executive Committee has decided that in the interest of prioritizing the… Read More


Apple’s Silicon Switch Changes Game & Balance 

Apple’s Silicon Switch Changes Game & Balance 
by Robert Maire on 06-24-2020 at 10:00 am

Intel Apple Silicon

Will/should others follow?
TSMC vs Intel impact?
Moving Apple’s supply chain further overseas

Apples move to self served silicon was no surprise…..
It has been speculated for years and we have talked about it many times.  It makes more sense for Apple to have silicon, custom designed for their applications and products… Read More


Why Go Custom in AI Accelerators, Revisited

Why Go Custom in AI Accelerators, Revisited
by Bernard Murphy on 06-24-2020 at 6:00 am

frame interpolation

I believe I asked this question a year or two ago and answered it for the absolute bleeding edge of datacenter performance – Google TPU and the like. Those hyperscalars (Google, Amazon, Microsoft, Baidu, Alibaba, etc) who want to do on-the-fly recognition in pictures so they can tag friends in photos, do almost real-time machine… Read More


How to Grow with Poise and Grace, a Tale of Scalability from ClioSoft

How to Grow with Poise and Grace, a Tale of Scalability from ClioSoft
by Mike Gianfagna on 06-23-2020 at 10:00 am

Screen Shot 2020 05 10 at 1.06.27 PM

ClioSoft published a white paper recently entitled Best Practices are the Foundations of a Startup. The piece discusses the needs and challenges associated with building a scalable infrastructure to support growth.

Before I get into more details on ClioSoft’s white paper, I would offer my own experience on this topic – the need… Read More


Design Technology Co-Optimization (DTCO) for sub-5nm Process Nodes

Design Technology Co-Optimization (DTCO) for sub-5nm Process Nodes
by Tom Dillinger on 06-23-2020 at 6:00 am

scaled metal resistance

Summary
Design Technology Co-Optimization (DTCO) analysis was pursued for library cell PPA estimates for gate-all-around (GAA) devices and new metallurgy options.  The cell design and process recommendations are a bit surprising.

Introduction
During the “golden years” of silicon technology evolution that applied Dennard… Read More


CEO Interview: Deepak Kumar Tala of SmartDV

CEO Interview: Deepak Kumar Tala of SmartDV
by Daniel Nenni on 06-22-2020 at 10:00 am

SmartDV CEO Interview 2020

SMARTDV is one of the biggest small EDA companies in the industry today in regards to products, customers and number of licenses in use, absolutely. They have a portfolio of more than 600 Design & Verification Solutions, everything from Design & Verification IP to Formal Verification IP, Post-Silicon Verification IP… Read More


Seeing is Believing, the Benefits of Delta’s Low-Resolution Vision Chip

Seeing is Believing, the Benefits of Delta’s Low-Resolution Vision Chip
by Mike Gianfagna on 06-22-2020 at 6:00 am

Screen Shot 2020 06 15 at 10.16.13 AM

Presto Engineering recently held a webinar discussing vision chip technology – what a vision chip is, what are the applications and how can you optimize its use.  Samer Ismail, a design engineer at Presto Engineering with deep domain expertise in vision chip technology was the presenter.  Samer takes you on a very informative … Read More


Embedded MRAM for High-Performance Applications

Embedded MRAM for High-Performance Applications
by Tom Dillinger on 06-21-2020 at 10:00 am

embedded memory requirements

Summary
A novel spin-transfer torque magnetoresistive memory (STT-MRAM) IP offering provides an attractive alternative for demanding high-performance embedded applications.

Introduction
There is a strong need for embedded non-volatile memory IP across a wide range of applications, as depicted in the figure below.

The… Read More