When designing IP for system-on-chip (SoC) and application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) implementations, IP designers strive for perfection. Optimal engineering often yields the smallest die area, thereby reducing both cost and power consumption while maximizing performance.
Similarly, when incorporating embedded… Read More
Failure and Yield Analysis is an increasingly difficult and complex process. Today, engineers are required to locate defects on complex integrated circuits. In many ways, this is akin to locating a needle in a haystack, where the needles get smaller and the haystack gets bigger every year. Engineers are required to understand… Read More
Semiconductor and integrated circuit developments continue to proceed at an incredible pace. The industry as a whole has gotten to this point of incredible complexity through the process of countless breakthroughs and developments in wafer fab processing. Today’s wafer fab contains some of the most complex and intricate… Read More
As the complexity of modern System-on-Chip (SoC) designs continues to rise, achieving energy efficiency measured as performance per watt has become a crucial design goal. With the increasing demand for powerful, multifunctional chips, balancing performance with power consumption has become essential. Realistic workloads… Read More
IC designers are tasked with meeting specifications like robustness in SRAM bit cells where the probability of a violation are lower than 1 part-per-billion (1 ppb). Another example of robustness is a Flip-Flop register that must have a probability of specification violation lower than 1 part-per-million (1 ppm). Using Monte… Read More
Always-sensing cameras are a relatively new method for users to interact with their smartphones, home appliances, and other consumer devices. Like always-listening audio-based Siri and Alexa, always-sensing cameras enable a seamless, more natural user experience. However, always-sensing camera subsystems require specialized… Read More
We’re so spoiled by 4K and 8K and frame rates of 120 Hz or higher video content on high-performance devices that now, many of us expect these higher resolutions and rates on even small devices. The necessary interfaces exist in MIPI Display Serial Interface 2 (DSI-2) and Camera Serial Interface 2 (CSI-2). The challenge is these interfaces… Read More
It should not come as a surprise that the vast majority of IoT devices are insecure. As an indication, one survey estimates that 98% of IoT traffic is unencrypted. It’s not hard to understand why. Many such devices are cost-sensitive, designing security into a product is hard, buyers aren’t prepared to pay a premium for security … Read More
5G provides a range of improvements compared to existing 4G LTE mobile networks in regards to capacity, speed, latency and security. One of the main improvements is in the 5G RAN; it is based on a virtualized architecture where functions can be centralized close to the 5G core for economy or distributed as close to the edge as possible… Read More
The demands of 5G requires new designs to not only save power but also increase performance and by moving to advance power-saving nodes and by using eFPGAs will help to achieve these goals. This paper will introduce 5G and O-RAN, the complexity of these systems, and how flexibility could be beneficial. Then we will dive into how eFPGA… Read More
