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COVID-19: Through the Rearview Mirror

COVID-19: Through the Rearview Mirror
by Roger C. Lanctot on 07-02-2020 at 10:00 am

COVID 19 Through the Rearview Mirror

The COVID-19 pandemic has turned the business of reporting news into a funhouse mirror where reality is distorted, up is down, and hopes for improving health and marketplace conditions are simultaneously raised and dashed on a daily basis. The latest news-driven whiplash moment arrived this morning care of the Detroit Free Press

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Staying on the Right Side in Worst Case Conditions – Performance (Part 2)

Staying on the Right Side in Worst Case Conditions – Performance (Part 2)
by Tim Penhale-Jones on 07-02-2020 at 10:00 am

Moortec Part 2 Talking Sense

In this, the second part of a two-part series we delve further into defining worst case, this time focusing specifically on device performance.

In the last blog we talked about the steady increase in power density per unit silicon area and how worst case is definitely getting worse. We discussed how in each new FinFET node the dynamic… Read More


What’s New in Verdi? Faster Debug

What’s New in Verdi? Faster Debug
by Bernard Murphy on 07-02-2020 at 6:00 am

Verdi Unified Debug

Want fast debug? Synopsys recently hosted a Webinar to show off the latest and greatest improvements to Verdi® in performance, memory demand and multi-tasking, among other areas.

Performance improvements
Taruna Reddy (PMM) and Allen Hsieh (Staff apps) presented features of the latest version, released in March – Taruna started… Read More


Killer Drones to be Available on the Global Arms Markets

Killer Drones to be Available on the Global Arms Markets
by Matthew Rosenquist on 07-01-2020 at 10:00 am

Killer Drones to be Available on the Global Arms Markets

Turkey may be the first customer for the Kargu series of weaponized suicide drones specifically developed for military use.  These semi-autonomous devices have been in development since 2017 and will eventually be upgraded to operate collectively as an autonomous swarm to conduct mass synchronized attacks.

This situation… Read More


Contact over Active Gate Process Requirements for 5G

Contact over Active Gate Process Requirements for 5G
by Tom Dillinger on 07-01-2020 at 6:00 am

frequency 5G

Summary
A recent process enhancement in advanced nodes is to support the fabrication of contacts directly on the active gate area of a device.  At the recent VLSI 2020 Symposium, the critical advantages of this capability were highlighted, specifically in the context of the behavior of RF CMOS devices needed for 5G designs.

IntroductionRead More


A Vibrant Semiconductor Manufacturing Model for the US

A Vibrant Semiconductor Manufacturing Model for the US
by Scott Jewler on 06-30-2020 at 10:00 am

Semiconductor Revenue 2019

Having spent the last 30 years in semiconductor manufacturing, eight years of this living and working in Asia, it is both exciting and unsettling to see renewed political interest in the revitalization of this industry in the United States. Gone are the days of ‘It doesn’t make any difference whether a country makes computer chipsRead More


Qualcomm on Power Estimation, Optimizing for Gaming on Mobile GPUs

Qualcomm on Power Estimation, Optimizing for Gaming on Mobile GPUs
by Bernard Murphy on 06-30-2020 at 6:00 am

Phone game

I don’t look at the RTL power estimation topic too often these days, so I was interested to see that ANSYS still has a very strong position in this area. Qualcomm is using PowerArtist on one of the most demanding modern applications – mobile GPU power gaming. Mobile gaming heavily loads the GPU, so any optimization in that area will … Read More


Interview with Altair CTO Sam Mahalingam

Interview with Altair CTO Sam Mahalingam
by Daniel Nenni on 06-29-2020 at 10:00 am

altair cto sam mahalingam RGB

In this interview we talk with Sam Mahalingam, chief technology officer at Altair, about gaining a competitive edge with software that’s built to handle high-throughput workloads like chip design and electronic design automation (EDA). Altair is a global technology company providing solutions in product development, high-performance… Read More


Optimizing Chiplet-to-Chiplet Communications

Optimizing Chiplet-to-Chiplet Communications
by Tom Dillinger on 06-29-2020 at 6:00 am

bump dimensions

Summary
The growing significance of ultra-short reach (USR) interfaces on 2.5D packaging technology has led to a variety of electrical definitions and circuit implementations.  TSMC recently presented the approach adopted by their IP development team, for a parallel-bus, clock-forwarded USR interface to optimize power/performance/area… Read More


Intel Designs Chips to Protect from ROP Attacks

Intel Designs Chips to Protect from ROP Attacks
by Matthew Rosenquist on 06-28-2020 at 10:00 am

Intel Designs Chips to Protect from ROP Attacks

Intel comes late to the game but will be delivering an embedded defense for Return Oriented Programming (ROP) types of cyber hacks. I first blogged about this back in Sept of 2016. Yes, almost four years have passed and I had hoped it would see the light of day much earlier.

The feature, to debut in the Tiger Lake microarchitecture… Read More