I’ve always been curious about what is inside an electronic device, and it was seeing the very first TI handheld calculator that got me started into a career as an Electrical Engineer. Next to Apple, the most popular brand in smart phone devices these days has got to be Samsung and they have just launched the Galaxy S6 device.… Read More
New Cooling Strategies for Future ComputingPower densities on chips increased from 50-100 W/cm2…Read More
DAC News – proteanTecs Unlocks AI Hardware Growth with Runtime MonitoringAs AI models grow exponentially, the infrastructure supporting…Read More
Sophisticated soundscapes usher in cache-coherent multicore DSPDigital audio processing is evolving into an art…Read More
A Quick Look at Agentic/Generative AI in Software EngineeringAgentic methods are hot right now since single…Read More
Security All Around in SoCs at DAC
Last month I was on my way to write a detailed article on important aspects to look at while designing an SoC. This was important in the new context of modern SoCs that go much beyond the traditional power, performance and area (PPA) requirements. I had about 12-13 parameters in my list that I couldn’t cover in one go, so I put the write-up… Read More
These Energy-Saving, Batteryless Chips Could Soon Power The Internet Of Things
Power consumption is always a major concern in the field of electronics, especially as the circuits controlling these electronics shrink in size while also growing in complexity. Utilizing a fairly new, ultra-low power technique known as a sub-threshold voltage mode for transistors operating in the circuit, the company named… Read More
The Changing Foundry Landscape: Trends and Challenges!
This will be a year of change for the fabless semiconductor ecosystem, absolutely. Last year we were wondering how Samsung Mobile was going to compete with the China clones and other low end smart phones. We now know the answer to that question thanks to the Chipworks tear down of the Galaxy S6. SemiWiki IP expert Dr. Eric Esteve blogged… Read More
Variation Alphabet Soup
On-chip variation (OCV) is a major issue in timing signoff, especially at low voltages or in 20/16/14nm processes. For example, the graph below shows a 20nm inverter. At 0.6V the inverter has a delay of 2 (nominalized) units. But due to on-chip variation this might be as low as 1.5 units or as high as 3 units, which is a difference from… Read More
Qualcomm LTE Modem Competitors? Samsung, Intel, Mediatek, Spreadtrum, Leadcore… or simply CEVA!
What is common between the 4G LTE modems from Samsung, Intel, Mediatek, Spreadtrum or Leadcore? All these chips are architecture with CEVA XC4000 family supporting 4G LTE-Advanced, LTE, HSPA/+, W-CDMA, TD-SCDMA, and legacy GSM/GPRS/EDGE. Samsung organization is vertical, the company design and manufacture DRAM, NAND and… Read More
DAC Keynotes: Mark Your Calendar
DAC starts in San Francisco on June 8th. The kickoff keynote at 9.20am that morning is by Brian Otis of Google. He is a director at Google[x]. According to Wikipedia:Google X, stylized as Google[x], is a semi-secret facility run by Google dedicated to making major technological advancements. It is located about a half mile from … Read More
ANSYS Event to Highlight Cutting Edge Technology Development
If you follow technology news, it would be hard to deny that we live in exciting times. In some ways there is an unparalleled amount of big and cool technology development going on right now. We all have followed the rise of Tesla Motors. They took over a long vacant US big-auto plant in Fremont and are reinventing the US automobile industry.… Read More
SEMI Wafers to Wallstreet – New England Forum March 12, 2015
On March 12 SEMI held a New England Forum breakfast event entitled “Wafers to Wallstreet” with four speakers. The main focus of the discussion was on the “Internet of Things” and the following are my impression from the talks in a bullet point format.
Device Scaling and Performance in the Era of IoT – Gary Rosen, Applied Materials… Read More
EDPS: Fins and FinFETs
Look at those dolphins with fins on their backs. Did you know that FinFETs are actually named after them since Chenming Hu and his team though that they looked like a fish’s fin? And since they invented FinFETs they got to name them too. But those dolphins also mean that it is nearly time for this years Electronic Design Process… Read More
Memory Innovation at the Edge: Power Efficiency Meets Green Manufacturing