I love the smell of fresh chiplets in the morning, but I bet you hear that all the time these days. As you may recall, rather than creating a semiconductor device as a single humongous piece of silicon, the latest and greatest alternative is to take multiple dice, mount them on a common substrate, and present everything in a single package, which may be referred to … Read More → "Is This the Ultimate Chiplet Interconnect Technology?"
In the microelectronics industry, the term “semiconductor fabrication plant” (a.k.a. “semiconductor fab”; sometimes called a “foundry”) is a factory for semiconductor device fabrication. In layman’s terms, this is where they build the silicon chips that power our modern world. Even a small fab can easily cost $1 billion. Spending $3 to $5 billion is not uncommon, and you can splash a lot … Read More → "Boosting Semiconductor Fab Productivity by up to 20 Percent!"
Do you ever get the feeling you are sitting on the cusp of a new era, metaphorically speaking? That’s the way I currently feel with respect to chiplets (I only wish I was gowned in garb apposite to the occasion).
The concept of chiplets has been around for some time, and they’ve been in use for the past … Read More → "Chiplets for the Unwashed Masses"
When I worked on my first ASIC deep in the mists of time that we used to call the 1980s, we employed a traditional “waterfall” model for our design and verification flows. In this case, any activities associated with the project were broken down into linear sequential phases, where each phase depended on the deliverables from the previous one.
The … Read More → "Doing the Time Warp with Calibre DesignEnhancer"
I fear I am becoming befuddled, bewildered, and bemused. It seems like every day I get to chat with a new company (well, a company new to me) that’s involved with artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) in some capacity or other. Some of these companies focus on the cloud, while others target the edge. Some devote themselves to the software side of things, … Read More → "Are These the Top-Performing Edge AI Processors?"
When I was a young sprout, I used to work for a pair of sister companies called Cirrus Designs and Cirrus Computers in the UK. While at Cirrus Designs, I learned all* about testing integrated circuits (ICs) and printed circuit boards (PCBs). Meanwhile, at Cirrus Computers, I learned all* about digital logic simulation, automatic test pattern generation (ATPG), and automatic test equipment (ATE). (*When I say “ … Read More → "Teradyne’s Tactics to Tackle Twenty-First Century Test"
