Catching up on some of the news from the last twenty-five days or so, this week we report about some interesting EDA related updates – but first, some press reports and company announcements suggesting an upcoming shakeup in the PC processor landscape.

Nvidia to reportedly develop Arm-based processors for Windows PCs

According to a Reuters report, Nvidia has begun designing Arm-based CPUs that would run Microsoft Windows. Nvidia’s initiative is reportedly driven by Microsoft’s effort to help chipmakers build Arm-based processors for Windows PCs, trying to replicate the success that Apple is having with its own Arm-based chips for Mac computers. Qualcomm has been making Arm-based chips for Windows laptops since 2016, but its exclusive license is reportedly expiring in 2024. After that deadline, Microsoft would encourage more chipmakers to join the effort, to avoid relying solely on Qualcomm. AMD is also reportedly planning to make chips for PCs with Arm technology.

Qualcomm’s new PC processor

And Qualcomm has just unveiled the Snapdragon X Elite platform for PCs. It features the custom integrated Qualcomm Oryon CPU and – according to the company – delivers up to two times faster CPU performance versus the competition, matching competitor peak performance with one-third of the power. In terms of AI performance, Qualcomm claims that Snapdragon X Elite can run generative AI models with over 13 billion parameters on-device. PCs powered by Snapdragon X Elite are expected starting mid-2024.

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OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, is reportedly exploring making its own artificial intelligence chips, possibly through the acquisition of an AI chip company. According to a Reuters report, OpenAI aims to gain independence from expensive Nvidia GPUs.

New EDA releases: Keysight, Nullspace, Mathworks

Keysight EDA 2024 software suite offers three major “shift left” updates. “RF System Explorer” streamlines system and circuit level design workflows for early exploration of system architectures in Advanced Design System; “Digital Pre-Distortion Explorer” and “Digital Pre-Distortion Designer” accelerate wide bandgap power amplifier design and validation using the Dynamic Gain Model; “SystemVue” delivers complete Satcom modeling and simulation solutions for 5G non-terrestrial network, DVB-S2X, and phased array product development.

Nullspace has launched the Nullspace Prep and Nullspace EM 2023.9 release, claiming a 2-4x simulation speed improvement for large problems. The company is also releasing the Nullspace EM Solver on the Windows platform; up until now, the product was only available on Linux. Users interested in the Windows version can apply to take part in a Beta program. Additionally, Nullspace has authored a new whitepaper, “Overcoming Limitations of 3D EM Simulation of Electrically Large Devices.”

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