GenAI, the most talked-about manifestation of AI these days, imposes two tough constraints on a hardware platform. First, it demands massive memory to serve large language model with billions of parameters. Feasible in principle for a processor plus big DRAM off-chip and perhaps for some inference applications but too slow … Read More The post Alphawave Semi Bridges from Theory to Reality in Chiplet-Based AI appeared first on SemiWiki ..read more

The concept of shift left is getting to be quite well-known. The strategy involves integrating various checks typically performed later in the design process into earlier stages. The main benefit is to catch and correct defects or errors at an earlier stage when it’s easier and faster to address. For complex SoC design, … Read More The post Design Stage Verification Gives a Boost for IP Designers appeared first on SemiWiki ..read more

On Friday April 12th Intel held a press briefing on their adoption of High NA EUV with Intel fellow and director of lithography Mark Phillips. In 1976 Intel built Fab 4 in Oregon, the first Intel fab outside of California. With the introduction of 300mm Oregon became the only development site for Intel with large manufacturing, development,… Read More The post Intel High NA Adoption appeared first on SemiWiki ..read more

Unit shipments of both PCs and smartphones versus a year ago have turned positive. According to IDC, PC shipments in 1Q 2024 were up 1.5% from 1Q 2023, the first positive year-to-year change since 4Q 2021. Smartphone year-to-year growth turned positive in 4Q 2023 at 8.5%. The growth continued in 1Q 2024 at 7.8%. 4Q 2023 was the first… Read More The post Electronics Turns Positive appeared first on SemiWiki ..read more

“Real men have fabs” was an insult AMD founder Jerry Sanders hurled at his poor competitors who could not afford to build fabs. A few years later, AMD would be fabless, spinning off its manufacturing facilities as GlobalFoundries. This was the beginning of a transformative period for the industry. Lisa Su could rightfully retort: … Read More The post Real men have fabs! appeared first on SemiWiki ..read more

How much can running on a multi-core (Arm) CPU speed up fault simulation? Paul Cunningham (GM, Verification at Cadence), Raúl Camposano (Silicon Catalyst, entrepreneur, former Synopsys CTO and now Silvaco CTO) and I continue our series on research ideas. As always, feedback welcome. The Innovation This month’s pick is Fault… Read More The post Fault Sim on Multi-Core Arm Platform in China. Innovation in Verification appeared first on SemiWiki ..read more

There has been much interest in Huawei’s and SMIC’s plans for 5nm production in the near future. Since there is no use of EUV in China, immersion DUV lithography (with a 76 nm pitch resolution) is expected to be used along with pitch quartering to achieve pitches in the 20-30 nm range expected for the 5nm and 3nm nodes [1].… Read More The post Huawei’s and SMIC’s Requirement for 5nm Production: Improving Multipatterning Productivity appeared first on SemiWiki ..read more

Securing the data and all the associated transactions that comprise our hyper-connected world is a daunting task. Security touches the hardware, software and all the channels connecting every device and every transaction. Threats can be embedded in software, hardware or systems can be compromised externally using a large … Read More The post How Secure-IC is Making the Cyber World a Safer Place appeared first on SemiWiki ..read more

TechInsights recognizes Earth Day 2024 by lifting the screen on smartphone semiconductor sustainability Smartphones are typically compared based on screen size, processor speed, and camera resolution. But when TechInsights looked at carbon footprints for manufacturing just the semiconductors of three flagship phones,… Read More The post Not all Smartphones are Created Equal appeared first on SemiWiki ..read more

Synopsys recently hosted an information rich-webinar, modestly titled “Improving Quality, FuSa, Reliability, and Security in Automotive Semiconductors”. I think they undersold the event; this was really about managing all of those things through the lifecycle of a car, in line with auto OEMs strategies for the future of the… Read More The post Lifecycle Management, FuSa, Reliability and More for Automotive Electronics appeared first on SemiWiki ..read more