Editors' Blog

20 to 14: Less Bad Than You Thought?

Conventional wisdom should suggest the following points:

Each new process node affects all layers
Moving to FinFETs will be a big change for designers

Turns out, according to EDA folks (Mentor and Cadence, to be specific), neither of those is true.

The backend of 16/14 (hereinafter referred to as 14 because I’m lazy) – the upper metal layers and such – will be the same as 20 nm. In fact, in this view, the easiest way to describe the 14-nm node is as a 20-nm process with FinFETs instead of … Read More → "20 to 14: Less Bad Than You Thought?"

Lightweight Embedded Multicore Task Management

by Jim Turley

The Multicore Association has released the latest of its multicore management APIs. The first such API they released was MCAPI, which allows data to be communicated throughout a potentially complex heterogeneous embedded multicore environment. The next was MRAPI, which deals with the management of resources, allowing virtual extension of scope beyond what an OS would provide in a single process.

This time it’s MTAPI, for managing tasks. Now& … Read More → "Lightweight Embedded Multicore Task Management"

Teasing Apart FBAR Loading and Temperature Effects

by Jim Turley

We hear stories of a not-so-distant future when we can wave our tricorder-like devices around and detect all kinds of substances that might be in the air. One of the ways sensors like this can work is by having a resonating body: when a substance adsorbs on the surface, it changes the mass, thereby changing the resonance frequency.

The problem is, however, that temperature also affects the frequency, and it’s actually pretty hard to calibrate that out of the system. Using a reference resonator or a complex software algorithm is possible, but, according to a … Read More → "Teasing Apart FBAR Loading and Temperature Effects"

Tools vs IP

by Jim Turley

All of the major EDA companies have had IP. Synopsys started with DesignWare before IP was a real concept; Mentor had IP associated with consulting for several years; Cadence has made a couple of acquisitions – notably memory – to bolster its internal IP efforts.

But the early products of these groups were typically lower-level IP – particularly I/O protocols. Not having to plough through hundreds of pages of a complex protocol spec was an attractive thing – assuming you were willing to trust your vendor to get it right or you had some way of … Read More → "Tools vs IP"

A Hardened Hub

by Bryon Moyer

There’s a new 9-axis motion sensor hub in town. Called SENtral, it’s a collaboration between PNI Sensors, known for geomagnetic sensors and fusion, and EM Microelectronics, a division of Swatch, whose focus is on ultra-low-power circuits. And it has its own twist.

Given EM’s focus, it should come as no surprise that this hub’s claim to fame is low power: they say it uses a small fraction of the power of the next competing microcontroller-based sensor hub … Read More → "A Hardened Hub"

One + One > Two

by Jim Turley

The latest, greatest mobile standards appear to be beastly affairs. Added to the old ones, and the number of algorithms that a poor cellphone – even a smart one – has to manage becomes pretty daunting.

And features like MIMO – various permutations and combinations of multiple antennae on the sending and receiving sides – make for an array of possible algorithms that CEVA says can only be managed through a software approach. That is, you load the software you need for the algorithm required at the moment rather than hard-code every possible variant, which would simply … Read More → "One + One > Two"

Monolithic Photonics

by Jim Turley

An interesting development was announced yesterday in the photonics world. In what appears to be a first of its kind, at least commercially, Skorpios announced a monolithic tunable laser – CMOS and 3/5 bits on the same chip. This eliminates the need to have the circuitry on one chip and then drive that into a separate chip that does the lasing, with obvious integration and efficiency benefits.

Skorpios does custom photonic work for its strategic investors, and in doing this process development, they have put together what amount to photonic standard cells; they talk about opening up an … Read More → "Monolithic Photonics"

Connecting CNTs to Metal

by Bryon Moyer

One of the things about CNTs acting as transistors is that the current flowing through them has to get into and out of the CNT from some other substance – typically metal. That junction, as it turns out, can have significant resistance. According to a paper done by a team from Georgia Tech and MIT (Songkil Kim et al), for a single-walled CNT (SWCNT) to connect to metal, there’s a quantum limit of around 65 kΩ.

Multi-walled CNTs (MWCNTs) can provide much lower-resistance connections, but how low depends on how you do it. Sputtering or … Read More → "Connecting CNTs to Metal"

Will There Ever Be Cake?

by Bryon Moyer

It’s as if there’s this great party coming, and everyone is working at breakneck speed to make sure that all the details are in place to make it the best party ever. And the highlight is some amazing cake that everyone’s been hearing about. Let’s call it an Extreme Ultra Velvet cake.

This cake is so special that everything needs to change. The flatware must be swapped out so that no surface ions contaminate the exquisite flavor. The dishes must be made out of the most perfect reflective material … Read More → "Will There Ever Be Cake?"

A Fully-Differential Accelerometer

by Bryon Moyer

Accelerometers are used for a wide variety of applications (which we’ll look at more specifically soon). Particularly demanding are automotive applications, not least because of the harsh conditions and huge amount of noise that they must tolerate. That noise can be electrical or simply “ambient vibration” that is not of interest.

Electrically, differential signaling is often used to reject common-mode noise. But one paper at ISSCC took the concept all the way back to the proof mass: a team from Robert Bosch split the proof mass, working then with what are nominally two … Read More → "A Fully-Differential Accelerometer"