Rumored Qualcomm-Intel deal; Synopsys selling optical group to Keysight; new NAND chips

Troubled Intel continues to be in the spotlight, also for the rumors of a gigantic acquisition that analysts deem unlikely. EDA news this week include Synopsys continuing to adjust its market footprint as a consequence of the Ansys acquisition. NAND chips are in the news not just because of new product announcements, but also as a benchmark of China’s manufacturing capabilities in the so-called “chip war” era.

Intel’s CEO message

In a message to Intel employees, company CEO Pat Gelsinger emphasized two recent good news: Intel Foundry will produce an AI fabric chip for AWS using the company’s 18A process – as part of a broader partnership – and Intel as a whole has been awarded up to $3B in direct funding under the CHIPS and Science Act for the U.S. government’s Secure Enclave program, designed to expand the trusted manufacturing of leading-edge semiconductors for the U.S. government. Gelsinger also announced that the company plans to establish Intel Foundry as an independent subsidiary inside of Intel, completing the process initiated earlier this year when the company separated the P&L and financial reporting for Intel Foundry and Intel Products. As for the new fabs, Gelsinger said that the company will pause its projects in Poland and Germany by approximately two years based on anticipated market demand.

According to Reuters, Qualcomm has in recent days approached Intel to explore a potential acquisition of the troubled chipmaker. Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon would be personally involved in the negotiations, however the San Diego-based company has not made a formal offer for Intel. The Reuters report points out that it’s not clear how Qualcomm, which has a market value of $188 billion, would finance a bid for Intel, which is valued at $122 billion, including its debt, and how it would handle the takeover of Intel Foundry.

U.S. planning ban of Chinese technologies in autonomous vehicles

The U.S. Commerce Department is reportedly expected to propose prohibiting Chinese software and hardware in connected and autonomous vehicles on American roads due to national security concerns. Potential dangers considered include the collection of data by Chinese companies on U.S. drivers and infrastructure, and the manipulation of vehicles connected to the internet and navigation systems.

EDA updates: MathWorks, Sondrel, IC Manage

MathWorks has unveiled Release 2024b of the Matlab and Simulink product families, introducing updates for wireless communications systems, control systems, and digital signal processing applications. Innovations include a new hardware support package for Qualcomm Hexagon Neural Processing Unit, the technology embedded within the Snapdragon family of processors.

UK-headquartered SoC design house Sondrel is using an internally developed Advanced Modelling Process for AI chip designs, covering functional verification and performance verification. The process uses accurate, cycle-based, system performance modelling early in the design cycle in advance of RTL development. A key to the process is that it can extract the behavioral interaction between the processors and the memory and then map it onto the rest of the chip’s functions.

IC Manage has announced advances to its IP Central semiconductor IP management system. IP central now pulls together all internal and third-party company IP into a searchable catalog. Compatible with commercial design management systems, Git-based environments, and IC Manage GDP-XL, IP Central now scales to manage over 100 million IP objects. The solution offers a Google-like web-based UI for searching across hundreds of metadata fields.

Samsung’s advances in flash technology

Samsung has begun mass production of its latest flash memory, the one-terabit quad-level cell 9th-generation vertical NAND. The new memory brings together a number of innovations. Among them, Channel Hole Etching technology was used to achieve the highest layer count in the industry with a double stack structure, resulting in a bit density approximately 86% higher than that of the previous generation QLC V-NAND. Other innovations include Designed Mold technology, to adjusts the spacing of word lines to ensure uniformity and optimization of cell characteristics, improving data retention performance by roughly 20%; and Predictive Program technology, to anticipate and controls cell state changes to minimize unnecessary actions, doubling write performance and improving data input/output speed by 60%. Data read and write power consumption decreased by about 30% and 50% respectively, by reducing the voltage that drives NAND cells and sensing only the necessary bit lines.

Is China’s YMTC using domestic manufacturing equipment?

And, speaking of flash, reverse engineering specialist TechInsights has found YMTC’s Xtacking4.0 NAND process in a commercial product, the ZhiTai TiPlus7100 Black Myth SSD. According to TechInsights, this new Chinese flash chip has a very advanced bit density – 12.66 Gb/mm2 – competitive with the top devices. This is achieved through the hybrid wafer bonding structure and the newly designed 20 vertical channel holes. However, the number of layers is reduced significantly, with 70 fewer than the previous generation. TechInsights believes that the lower complexity and die sizes are to deal with lower yield issues from a relatively immature Chinese equipment ecosystem. If TechInsights is right, this would be the evidence that the Chinese equipment ecosystem – though immature – is now capable of producing competitive memory chips.

DSP-less optical cables

Japanese company THine Electronics has developed what it claims is the industry-first optical DSP-less chipset supporting PAM4 64Gbps for PCIe6.0. Leveraging analog-based technology, the solution enables to save power consumption by 60% and to lower latency by 90%, by removing DSPs from optical communication systems in data centers. The chipset – that consists of VCSEL driver and trance impedance amplifier – is targeted at super high-speed active optical cables and super high-speed on board optics (OBO) modules.

Acquisitions

Keysight has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Synopsys’ Optical Solutions Group, a developer of optical design and analysis software tools. The sale of Optical Solutions Group was determined to be a necessary step towards obtaining regulatory approval of and successfully closing Synopsys’ proposed acquisition of Ansys.

Syntiant, a company specializing in low power edge AI deployments, has signed a definitive agreement to acquire certain assets of Knowles Consumer MEMS Microphones (CMM) business. Knowles’ CMM MEMS microphones are used in smartphones, smart speakers, wearables, autos and household appliances. The acquisition will enable Syntiant to offer customers a complete turnkey solution for always-on audio and speech applications.

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