The semiconductor industry is once again at an inflection point, enjoying a renaissance fueled by disruptive artificial intelligence (AI) applications, such as autonomous driving and large language models (LLMs). LLMs like OpenAI’s ChatGPT have suddenly become prevalent in everyday conversations, as the sophistication of the “chatbot” has seemed to have crossed a threshold of conversational capability.  The potential for integration of this technology into various services is seemingly limitless. This level of intelligence requires analyzing and extracting information from data, powerful ..read more

The microcontroller has been around for over 50 years and constitutes a significant portion of the electronic-component industry today. Due to their versatility, adaptability, and simplicity in programming, MCUs are more important than ever in embedded systems. The presence of larger memory and CPU power has allowed the use of real-time operating systems (RTOS) where previously developers had to rely on “bare metal” coding. However, as products have evolved to become connected devices in the context of IoT, we are seeing fundamental shortcomings in the traditional methods of software developm ..read more

MENLO PARK, Calif.—A pair of 21-year-old Harvard dropouts have raised $5.36 million in a seed round for their chip startup Etched.ai, which plans to make an AI accelerator chip dedicated to large language model (LLM) acceleration, the men told EE Times. The round was led by Primary Venture Partners with MAX Ventures and angels, including former Ebay CEO Devin Wenig. This seed round values the company at $34 million. Etched.ai CEO Gavin Uberti told EE Times he had planned to take a year off from Harvard, but ended up finding a job working on the ApacheTVM open-source compiler and microkernels a ..read more

RISC-V represents an existential threat to Arm, and a new industry consortium plans to increase that threat of extinction by accelerating the development of open-source software for the RISC-V architecture. Members of the consortium this week announced the formation of the RISC-V Software Ecosystem (RISE) Project to do so. The RISC-V Instruction Set Architecture (ISA) is a microprocessor phenomenon that started as an academic project at the University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley) in 2010. Since then, the open-source RISC-V ISA has developed “the big ’mo”—momentum. Back in the 1990s, A ..read more

During a press conference at Computex this week in Taiwan, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang and MediaTek CEO Rick Tsai announced that Nvidia would be supplying GPU chiplets to MediaTek to be incorporated into a yet-to-be-designed system-on-chip (SoC) for in-cabin automotive applications along with Nvidia AI and graphics IP. Chiplets are not new to Nvidia. This announcement also adds a bit more validation for chiplets as a concept—one that many semiconductor makers are counting on to help keep Moore’s Law alive for the next several years. In Taiwan this week, MediaTek CEO Rick Tsai, left, and Nvidia CEO ..read more

Marvell’s introduction of high-speed silicon interconnects made on the new 3-nm process at Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) promises to stitch together chiplets that cut power consumption in data centers, Mark Kuemerle, VP of technology at Marvell, told EE Times The die-to-die interconnects will enable data transfer speeds up to 240 terabytes per second (Tbps), 45% faster than the state-of-the-art interconnects in multichip packages. The new building blocks are part of Marvell’s strategy to develop IP for chip designs that increase the bandwidth, performance and energy efficiency ..read more

To build a fully virtualized, end-to-end, cloud-native mobile network, it’s a great idea to make use of the extended version of the Berkeley Packet Filter (eBPF) technology—which makes it possible to monitor and control the network in new ways to deliver a differentiated mobile service experience to customers. To do this, companies should begin with the OS kernel, which is the process scheduler for the CPU and which manages memory and file access: It connects the CPU with devices and manages system calls, among other tasks. Cloud-native processes that run in the kernel have access to this func ..read more

As chip production increases, so do carbon emissions. European semiconductor companies have made sustainable commitments and set ambitious emission-reduction targets, but will they be sufficient to achieve net zero by 2050? Infineon CEO Jochen Hanebeck solemnly broke ground on the company’s new 300-mm Smart Power Fab in Dresden, the capital city of the German state of Saxony, in early May. “We are speeding up for the green and digitization transition of Europe and beyond,” Hanebeck said in his address at the groundbreaking ceremony. “The demand for semiconductors is growing strongly and persis ..read more

Since its development in the 1990s, graphite has been the anode material of choice for battery manufacturers producing lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries. However, as graphite hits its energy-density limits, silicon (Si) anodes have the potential to provide significant improvements in gravimetric and volumetric energy density, according to industry players. The anode is an essential part of a Li-ion battery, along with the cathode, separator and electrolyte. By replacing graphite with silicon in the anode, Li-ion battery manufacturers could significantly increase energy density to deliver longer r ..read more

Solar energy has become an unlikely battleground between U.S. trade hawks and proponents of a self-sufficient solar supply chain. In May, the U.S. House and Senate passed resolutions that would reinstate tariffs on solar panels manufactured in Asia. President Joe Biden vetoed the measures. The stakes: U.S. efforts to regain ground lost to China in photovoltaic (PV) materials, solar panels and components, and a clean-energy infrastructure. The tariffs were paused for two years by Biden in 2022 to allow the import of solar panels used in utility-scale solar project development. However, two issu ..read more