The IEEE ISSCC conference was held this week in San Francisco. Among the highlights: IBM detailed an AI accelerator based on its new inferencing dataflow architecture. CEA-Leti presented a chip-scale, ultra-fast, battery-operated EPR spectrometer. QuTech introduced a cryo-CMOS SoC with NV centers in diamond. UTokyo showed its low-jitter PLL architecture for beyond 5G/6G. Imec d...» read more
AI inference is no longer a single workload that can be served efficiently by a single type of accelerator or memory. From fast chat replies to 10M token codebases, inference spans wildly diverse workloads with very different limits on latency, bandwidth, capacity, and compute, as the figure below demonstrates.1Source: Meta1The AI inference spectrum of workloads includes: Inter...» read more
Key Takeaways Extracting heat from a chip faster is a short-term fix to a bigger problem. The longer-term challenge is how to reduce the amount of energy used per query. Data movement, guardbanding, and software inefficiency are key targets for the future.Heat is a serious problem within AI chips, and it is limiting how much processing can be done. The solution is either to...» read more
Intel hired ex-Qualcomm GPU guru Eric Demers for the company's high-performance GPU push, setting the stage for a three-way battle with Nvidia and AMD. The key targets for Intel and AMD will be better power efficiency and a programming model that rivals CUDA, but don't expect Nvidia to stand still.Acquisitions Texas Instruments plans to acquire Silicon Labs for ~$7.5B cash to enhance i...» read more
Key Takeaways: Quantum threats to security are already real. Adversaries are already harvesting data that will be decrypted later by quantum computers. Quantum computers capable of breaking RSA and ECC may arrive as early as next year. Asymmetric encryption algorithms like RSA and ECC will become inadequate against quantum threats, while symmetric encryption (such as AES) is less vul...» read more
Chiplet architectures are quickly becoming the dominant approach for building scalable, heterogeneous SoCs. By disaggregating a monolithic die into multiple interoperable chiplets, silicon designers gain flexibility in process node choices, reuse of proven functions, and faster time-to-market. At the same time, disaggregation breaks one of the most fundamental assumptions in traditional SoC sec...» read more
Big deals and fundings Teradyne and MultiLane are forming a joint venture, MultiLane Test Products (MLTP), to accelerate the development of test solutions for high speed data connections. Teradyne will be the majority owner. Ricursive Intelligence raised $300M Series A for AI-driven IC design. IonQ plans to acquire SkyWater for ~$1.8B, creating a "vertically integrated full-stack q...» read more
Experts At The Table: AI/ML is driving a steep ramp in neural processing unit (NPU) design activity for everything from data centers to edge devices such as PCs and smartphones. Semiconductor Engineering sat down to discuss this with Jason Lawley, director of product marketing, AI IP at Cadence; Sharad Chole, chief scientist and co-founder at Expedera; Steve Roddy, chief marketing officer at Qu...» read more
Experts At The Table: AI/ML are driving a steep ramp in neural processing unit (NPU) design activity for everything from data centers to edge devices such as PCs and smartphones. Semiconductor Engineering sat down with Jason Lawley, director of product marketing, AI IP at Cadence; Sharad Chole, chief scientist and co-founder at Expedera; Steve Roddy, chief marketing officer at Quadric; Steven W...» read more
The AI hardware landscape continues to evolve at a breakneck speed, and memory technology is rapidly becoming a defining differentiator for the next generation of GPUs and AI inference accelerators. When NVIDIA introduced Rubin CPX, its new class of GPU tailored for massive context inference, it underscored a new industry reality: memory throughput and efficiency are now just as critical as ra...» read more
Workflows and the addition of new capabilities are happening much faster than with previous technologies, and new grads may be vital in that transition.
Workflows and the addition of new capabilities are happening much faster than with previous technologies, and new grads may be vital in that transition.
Companies and governments invested heavily in onshoring fabs and facilities over the past 12 months as tariffs threatened to upset the global supply chain.
Memory chip shortages prompt price increases; Israeli chip foundry; 2 acquisitions; Baidu's AI chips; IBM's new quantum processor; GF's GaN push; 3D NAND scaling boosters; U.S. policy recommendations; +$500M in fundings; SiPho and SiGe capacity; EV joint venture.
Growing use cases include life science AI, reducing memory and I/O bottlenecks, data prepping, wireless networking, and as insurance for evolving protocols.
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