Uncertainty Ahead
If finFETs work as planned, it’s likely they will show up in every complex SoC for decades to come. Adding another dimension to transistors has enormous potential at advanced nodes, and maybe even at...
View ArticleMachine Talk
The Internet of Things raises some interesting questions that have never been fully addressed in semiconductor design. For instance, how do you assess the necessary performance for any particular...
View ArticleMoving Targets
There is a very close correlation between power and complexity in an SoC. The more functionality that is required to meet market demands, the greater the need to push to the next process node in order...
View ArticleBig Iron Conundrums
Enormous attention is being focused on energy efficiency in mobile devices because time between charges trumps a slight boost in performance. Inside of data centers those benefits are far less clear....
View ArticlePushing The Limits
Ever since the turn of the millennium, researchers have been warning that wires and interconnects will have issues. Electron crashes were reported as early as 2001, and electromigration is rising to...
View ArticleIntel Vs. Everyone Else
A report from ABI Research is starting to gain some attention. For cynics, the question of why now seems perfectly reasonable, considering the report was released early last month and promptly fell...
View ArticleNext Phase Of Energy Efficiency Begins
Individual purchases and product rollouts by companies are difficult to assess by themselves. Sometimes they are isolated steps that have no context or connection to anything else—the proverbial...
View ArticleSolar In Context
What made Apple’s iPod a winner was business context. There were plenty of other MP3 players on the market and Apple’s wasn’t particularly noteworthy from a technology standpoint. But rather than just...
View ArticlePerformance Or Power?
For high-volume chips, such as those slated for mobile devices such as tablets or smart phones, energy efficiency is absolutely critical. For very high-value chips, which are the ones that show up in...
View ArticleThe Power Of Low Power
In the United States, new rules that cars will need to average 54.5 miles per gallon by the year 2025, and 35.5 mpg by 2016, suddenly seem very achievable. In fact, some cars in development are...
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