Intent-driven programming; Glow MCU support; Mac MPU die size; TV LCD market; AI-optimized process

Called MISIM (which stands for “machine inferred code similarity”), the new “machine programming system” developed by Intel in conjunction with MIT and Georgia Tech is an automated engine using neural networks to learn what a piece of software intends to do, by studying the structure of the code and analyzing syntactic differences of other code with similar behavior. As explained in a press release, Intel’s ultimate goal for machine programming is to enable software creation based on human intention expressed in any fashions, whether that’s code, natural language or something else. From an EDA perspective, it will be interesting to see if some aspects of this AI-based code analysis will prove applicable to HDL in chip design, too.

Credit: Intel

NXP microcontrollers gain Glow neural network compiler

NXP’s eIQ Machine Learning Software Development Environment now supports the Glow neural network compiler, with the goal of delivering high performance inferencing for NXP’s i.MX RT series of crossover MCUs – especially for vision and voice applications at the edge. NXP’s implementation of Glow targets Arm Cortex-M cores and the Cadence Tensilica HiFi 4 DSP, with platform-specific optimizations for the above-mentioned series of NXP products. Glow (the Graph Lowering NN compiler) was introduced by Facebook in May 2018 as an open source community project, with the goal of providing optimizations to accelerate neural network performance on a range of hardware platforms. The term “crossover” used by NXP to designate this MCU series refers to the convergence of low-power applications processors and high-performance microcontrollers. Besides Glow, the NXP’s eIQ Machine Learning Software Development Environment also includes inferencing support for TensorFlow Lite.

MacBooks to adopt Apple’s own processors: an analyst’s perspective

Last May EDACafe briefly informed readers about Apple reportedly planning to start selling Mac computers with its own Arm-based main processors by next year. Now an analyst from Linley Group offers an explanation for that decision: “Apple’s custom Arm CPU, known as Lightning, measures just over half the size of Intel’s newest Sunny Cove design, according to our measurements, but the two CPUs deliver similar performance on the GeekBench test. Thus, the transition from Intel to in-house silicon will reduce Apple’s manufacturing costs without affecting performance.”

China poised to conquer the TV LCD market

According to market research firm Yole Développement, LCDs will hold 98.2% of the TV display market in 2020 and remain unchallenged on entry and mid-range segments. But Samsung Display and LG Display’s LCD TV panel business have turned unprofitable in 2019, due to oversupply that sent prices to their lowest levels ever. As explained by Yole analysts, “Thanks to subsidies, lower depreciation, more recent and efficient fabs, BOE and CSOT (Chinese display manufacturers, editor’s note) can control price to eliminate competition. Korean and Taiwanese LCD panel makers turned unprofitable and it became clear that China would soon close the technology gap, leaving no opportunity for differentiation, controlling prices and owning the market. In Q1-2020, Samsung and LG therefore decided to retreat from the LCD TV panel business.” In this context, new TV display technologies abound: LCD + QDCF, miniLED, Dual Cell, WOLED, RGB OLED (inkjet), microLED, QNED, EL-QD, etc. According to Yole, both Samsung and LG are currently pursuing “stop-gap” technologies (WOLED and QD-OLED respectively), while Chinese display makers BOE and CSOT are both eager to jump directly to the next generation (inkjet-printed RGB OLED or EL-QD), adding risks to the strategy of Korean players. Yole also points out that the microLED technology is still too expensive for the consumer market. However, “microLED’s unique ability for bezel-less tiling could enable the manufacturing of displays of arbitrarily large size with much lower capex than OLED.”

What is an AI-optimized foundry solution?

Approximately one month ago, Globalfoundries announced its new FinFET 12LP+ solution, presenting it as “optimized for artificial intelligence training and inference applications”. But what does “optimized” mean, exactly? The key point here is that a foundry solution is not just a manufacturing process but includes physical design details, too – and analyst Linley Gwennap has recently provided some interesting insights about this. According to Gwennap, startups and other small companies find it hard to use the most advanced 7-nanometer processes; with its 12LP+ technology, Globalfoundries now offers an alternative which reduces power by cutting voltage rather than transistor size. The foundry discovered that in MAC operations most of the power goes to reading data from local SRAM and transferring it to the MAC units. So Globalfoundries redesigned the paired transistors in the SRAM cell to improve matching, thereby shrinking the required voltage margin. This, in turn, allowed the supply voltage reduction. Thanks to this and other redesign efforts, typical AI operations consume up to 75% less power. According to Gwennap, “The advantages of this approach are in some ways greater than those of 7nm but come at a lower cost.” Comparing the 12LP+ solution with the preexisting 12LP, Globalfoundries claims a 20-percent SoC-level logic performance boost and a 10-percent improvement in logic area scaling.

Acquisitions

Analog Devices has acquired the HDMI business of Invecas (Santa Clara, CA) with the goal of delivering more complete solutions throughout the entire customer journey – from chip, to certification, to end product – and increasing the company’s role in the standards body representing HDMI. The Invecas HDMI technology group originated from Silicon Image, a semiconductor company founded in 1995, where the HDMI technology was first created. This team will continue to play a critical role in the combination of ADI’s audio and visual business units. Significant evolution of the HDMI standard is expected over the next few years to support television innovations such as 8K and 10K video, enhanced audio return, variable refresh rate and more.

And in the PCB manufacturing industry, US-based Summit Interconnect has acquired Canada-based ITL Circuits.

Munich events next fall

Oktoberfest 2020 has been cancelled due to the Covid-19 pandemic, but another popular Munich event – the electronica trade show – will take place next November as planned, although with a different format. Alongside a compact trade fair concept that includes all the topics covered by electronica, the event will be complemented by digital offerings. In this year’s exhibition floorplan, only seven halls appear to be occupied – plus the ICM conference center as usual. Co-location with Semicon Europa 2020, however, has been confirmed.

Credit: www.oktoberfest.de

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