Minimum Energy Per Query


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

Improving IC System Quality And Performance


Ensuring that multi-die assemblies and advanced SoCs will work as expected from time zero to the end of their lifecycle adds new challenges for chipmakers and their customers. Chips are being run harder, hotter, and for longer periods of time, often in unique configurations and with customized workloads. Alex Burlak, vice president of test and analytics at proteanTecs, talks about how to identi... » read more

On-Package Memory With UCIe To Improve Bandwidth Density And Power Efficiency (AMD, Intel Corp.)


A new technical paper titled "On-Package Memory with Universal Chiplet Interconnect Express (UCIe): A Low Power, High Bandwidth, Low Latency and Low Cost Approach" was published by researchers at Intel Corporation and AMD. Abstract "Emerging computing applications such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) are facing a memory wall with existing on-package memory solutions that are unable to meet ... » read more

Re-Architecting AI For Power


The industry is becoming increasingly concerned about the amount of power being consumed by AI, but there is no simple solution to the problem. It requires a deep understanding of the application, the software and hardware architectures at both the semiconductor and system levels, and how all of this is designed and implemented. Each piece plays a role in the total power consumed and the utilit... » read more

Workload-Specific Hardware Accelerators


Workload-specific hardware accelerators are becoming essential in large data centers for two reasons. One is that general-purpose processing elements cannot keep up with the workload demands or latency requirements. The second is that they need to be extremely efficient due to limited electricity from the grid and the high cost of cooling these devices. Sharad Chole, chief scientist and co-foun... » read more

Building An AI Chip: Pre Silicon Planning


This white paper highlights the challenges of AI chip design, including balancing performance, cost, and power efficiency. It emphasizes the importance of early architecture exploration to avoid costly design revisions and ensure optimal power-performance trade-offs. The paper underscores the need for secure, efficient, and scalable IP solutions to meet the evolving demands of AI applications, ... » read more

Review Paper: Wafer-Scale Accelerators Versus GPUs (UC Riverside)


A new technical paper titled "Performance, efficiency, and cost analysis of wafer-scale AI accelerators vs. single-chip GPUs" was published by researchers at UC Riverside. "This review compares wafer-scale AI accelerators and single-chip GPUs, examining performance, energy efficiency, and cost in high-performance AI applications. It highlights enabling technologies like TSMC’s chip-on-wafe... » read more

On The Ground At ECTC 2025


Senior Executive Editor Laura Peters examines the the hot topics at last week's IEEE's Electronic Components and Technology Conference, including the impact of hardware-software integration on power consumption, co-packaged optics, hybrid bonding, and fan-out panel-level packaging. https://youtu.be/yBDKqrPQBl4   » read more

Offline RL Framework That Dynamically Controls The GPU Clock And Server Fan Speed To Optimize Power Consumption And Computation Time (KAIST)


A new technical paper titled "Power Consumption Optimization of GPU Server With Offline Reinforcement Learning" was published by researchers at Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) and KT Research and Development Center. "Optimizing GPU server power consumption is complex due to the interdependence of various components. Conventional methods often involve trade-offs: in... » read more

Digital Twins For Design And Verification Workflows


Experts At The Table: AI is starting to impact several parts of the EDA design and verification flows, but so far these improvements are isolated to a single tool or small flows provided by a single company. What is required is a digital twin of the development process itself, on which AI can operate. Semiconductor Engineering sat down with a panel of experts, including Johannes Stahl, senior d... » read more

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