Major stories this week: technology roadmaps; EDA; design process management; IoT; AI chips; on-chip monitoring; assemblies

Three nanoelectronics powerhouses shared their roadmaps and future views at their respective events: Intel Investor Meeting (May 8 in Santa Clara), Samsung Foundry Forum (May 14 in Santa Clara), and Imec Technology Forum (May 14 in Antwerp, Belgium). Many more news this week concern several different areas, as described below; among them, the release of a new report from IC Insights, showing that in 2018 Texas Instruments maintained its place as the world’s leading supplier of analog chips.

Technology roadmaps and future transistor trends

Intel’s first volume 10nm processor, a mobile PC platform code-named “Ice Lake,” will begin shipping in June, while the lead 7nm product – which is expected to be an Intel Xe architecture-based, general-purpose GPU for data center AI and high-performance computing – is set to launch in 2021. Intel’s 7nm process technology will deliver 2 times scaling and is expected to provide approximately 20 percent increase in performance per watt. It will mark the company’s first commercial use of extreme ultraviolet lithography. The most aggressive announcement came from Samsung foundry division, reportedly planning to begin “risk production” of one of two 3nm gate-all-around (GAA) processes by the second half of next year, with mass production expected in 2021. Samsung is reportedly claiming to be ahead of TSMC in GAA by probably 12 months, and ahead of Intel by probably two to three years. Imec, as a research institute, can offer a wider perspective and is reportedly forecasting the future coexistence of different types of transistor structures, depending on each foundry’s choice or on requirement priorities (area, power, or performance). Both Intel and Imec stressed the future importance of 3D packaging.

Intel's roadmap (Credit: Intel Corporation)

Speaking of foundries, four of them (TSMC, UMC, SMIC and TowerJazz) have announced their revenues for first quarter 2019 or until April. Consistently with the current semiconductor market expectations, all four have reported a decrease compared to the same period of 2018 – although with different percentages.

ES Jung speaking at the Samsung Foundry Forum. Image credit: Samsung

EDA updates

The Samsung event also brought several EDA news. The semiconductor design IP of Samsung Foundry is now marketed, licensed and supported through Silvaco; the initial offering is for the 14nm process node and is expected to extend to advanced technology nodes at 11nm, 10nm and 8nm, as well as mature planar technologies such as 28nm. Ansys multiphysics solutions (RedHawk, RedHawk-SC and Totem) are now certified for Samsung 5LPE (5nm low power early) process technology. And Cadence announced that its custom and analog/mixed-signal IC design flow has achieved certification for Samsung Foundry’s 28nmFD-SOI (28FDS) process technology.

Other EDA updates include the expanded collaboration between Synopsys and Arm to deliver QuickStart Implementation Kits supporting Synopsys' Fusion Compiler solution, to accelerate implementation of products containing Arm's new and future core architectures; and, in analog/mixed-signal IC fabrication, a new tool from X-FAB Silicon Foundries preventing problems caused by unwanted substrate couplings. Called SubstrateXtractor, the tool allows engineers to locate potential issues and make the changes necessary to eliminate them (via better floorplanning, guard rings, etc.).

Design process acceleration and management

EDA workflow acceleration and workload management and becoming increasingly important for many design teams, also to leverage cloud-based resources. To accelerate its EDA workflow, Mellanox has chosen WekaIO’s Matrix file system, a solution that – according to WekaIO – delivers a 3x performance increase compared to local file systems and a 10x increase compared to traditional NAS. To help manage its FinFET ASIC and IP designs, eSilicon has selected Univa’s Grid Engine workload scheduling and optimization solution.

IoT solutions

A show recently held in Santa Clara (“Internet of Things World”, May 13 to 16) brought many news concerning the IoT area. Among them, an agreement between Osram and Facility Solutions Group that leverages networked lighting systems as the technology infrastructure for smart lighting and applications beyond illumination. A few days before the show, STMicroelectronics introduced its SensorTile.box, containing ST MEMS devices for motion, context, and environmental sensing, ready to connect to Microsoft Azure IoT Central. More IoT news came from the recent Microsoft Build developers conference, where NXP announced a collaboration with Microsoft to deliver an IoT predictive maintenance solution using artificial intelligence capabilities. Based on Azure IoT Central, the solution consists of a small, low power System-on-Module powered by NXP’s i.MX RT106C Crossover Processors, a full suite of sensors, and an associated Anomaly Detection Toolbox.

STMicroelectronics' SensorTile.box. Image credit: STMicroelectronics

High efficiency AI chip

Hailo (Tel Aviv, Israel) released Hailo-8, that the company describes as “the world’s top performing deep learning processor”. The chip employs an innovative architecture enabling edge devices to run sophisticated deep learning applications that would otherwise need cloud resources. Mainly targeting automotive applications, Hailo-8 claims a much higher power efficiency compared to Nvidia Xavier AGX. Also in the AI-related area, Imagination Technologies has joined SiFive's DesignShare ecosystem, giving system designers easy access to its PowerVR GPU and neural network accelerator IP cores. And Wave Computing will include the MIPS32 microAptiv cores – designed for low power, high performance and cost sensitive applications – in the newest release of MIPS Open program components.

IP for in-chip process monitoring and operation analytics

Embedding specialized IP blocks within chips is helping to improve reliability against process variability and to optimize SoC performance. Canaan-Creative, a Beijing-based Asic vendor, has embedded an IP from Moortec (Plymouth, UK) for process, voltage and temperature monitoring, to achieve mass production on TSMC’s 7nm process. And designers of SoCs targeting real-time applications will now be able to trace the operation of hardware and software code down to the level of single clock cycles, by embedding new monitoring and analytics IP from UltraSoC (Cambridge, UK).

Fast PCB assembling and injection molded structural electronics

Tempo Automation has raised $45 million in Series C funding, led by existing investor, Point72 Ventures. The company claims to be the world’s fastest electronics manufacturer for prototyping and low-volume production of printed circuit board assemblies, thanks to a proprietary factory automation software deployed in its San Francisco factory. Companies interested in injection molded structural electronics (integrating printed circuitry and electronic components into 3D injection molded plastics, for in-vehicle applications and home/industrial appliances) will find these solutions on show at the upcoming IMSE Days 2.0 conference on June 5, in Oulu, Finland. The event is organized by TactoTek.

An injection molded structural electronics assembly. Image credit: TactoTek

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